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/nb880405.250

Text File | 1991-10-01 | 64KB | 1,366 lines

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THE CLONE STORE GETS CLOBBERED
SAN LEANDRO, Ca. (NB) -- In a raid that culminates several months
of investigation, police have nabbed hardware and software from
The Clone Store, an IBM-compatible computer retail outlet, and
charged its proprietor with a dozen counts of copyright violation.
Reny Morris is accused of having illegally copied software from
such big players as Microsoft, Lotus, and Ashton-Tate, and giving
away as much as $5,000 worth of software with every system
purchase.  The offended companies estimate Morris gave away
$300,000 to $700,000 worth of software in the course of his
business.  A spokesman for Reny Morris told NEWSBYTES he has
no comment on the charges.

NEWSBYTES learned of the alleged piracy problem at The Clone Store
late last year when contacted by a consultant who said all the
"ethical alarms were going off in her head" when she witnessed
software being "given away" on hard disks with a computer purchase.
Several small software companies' products were also being
pirated, she said.  NEWSBYTES contacted those firms, which included
Unison World, Executive Systems, and DAC, only to be told they
were not interested because they had no money to pursue an
investigation or prosecution.

Now, the Software Publishers Association has picked up the ball,
backed by attorneys and cash from Ashton-Tate, Lotus, Microsoft, and
WordPerfect Corporation.  The SPA's Executive Director Ken
Wasch told NEWSBYTES that this is the first of what will be many
lawsuits launched against pirates, which include bulletin boards,
Fortune 500 companies, and mail order houses.  "We only want
the 'slam dunks,'" he said, referring to the cases that are
easily prosecuted.

Wasch says officers also seized customer lists from the store
during the raid.  "The message here is whoever buys from
unscrupulous retailers is putting themselves in jeopardy.
They are also infringing the copyrights of our members. "  He
did not disclose what action, if any, would be taken against
those on the customer lists.

This first suit is filed in US District Court in San Francisco.  If
convicted, Reny Morris could be liable for damages.  Based
upon preliminary analysts, says Wasch, that could be in the hundreds
of thousands of dollars.
[***][4/5/88][***]
STEVE JOBS KEEPS 'EM LAUGHING AT SPA CONVENTION
BERKELEY, Ca. (NB) --   A witty and entertaining NeXT founder Steve
Jobs took the podium at the annual Software Publishers Association
meeting to court potential software developers for his coming
workstation and to comment on the Apple "look and feel" suit, and
the industry in general.  Jobs, in a lively question and answer session
(he had no prepared remarks) said he "doesn't understand" the
Apple suit, as the Macintosh icons, mouse, and windows are
actually derived from work done at Xerox' Palo Alto Research
Center in 1979.  Jobs should know; he headed the team that
developed the Macintosh, adding that during development, his
team kept in mind a quote from Pablo Picasso.  "Good artists
copy.  Great artists steal."

In a related revelation, Jobs said that Hewlett Packard's chief
executive John Young complained to him that Apple personnel
spent three days changing NewWave, the operating "environment"
named in the lawsuit, to look more like a Macintosh.

Jobs, who will probably be called to testify should the lawsuit
go to trial, may also, ironically, be a target of similar lawsuit
action by Apple should his NeXT machine look too close to the
Macintosh.  Jobs would not comment when asked whether he
had arranged to license any of the Macintosh screen features.

Many in the audience wanted him to comment on the NeXT
workstation, now rumored to be reaching software developers
and possibly to be introduced next month.  He said he could not,
that a "young company needs the advantage of surprise."
He added, "It's the best product that I've ever seen in my life!
The product will speak louder than anything I can say."
[***][4/5/88][***]
THE EXCELLENCE IN SOFTWARE AWARD WINNERS
BERKELEY, Ca. (NB) --The  Washington, D.C.-based Software Publishers
Association handed out its annual trophies, this year adding
excellence in computer journalism to its awards categories.
Winning top honor as the "Best of the Best" was Adobe Illustrator,
chosen as the year's single most outstanding product.  Adobe
Illustrator also won in the "Best Business Productivity" category.
The Andrew Fluegelman Award for outstanding software programming
and software excellence went to Bill Atkinson, creator of HyperCard.
Broderbund got "Best Entertainment Program" and "Best New Use of a
Computer" for "Jam Session," a product which allows a Macintosh
user to "play along" with jamming musicians.   Britannica/Designware's
"Designasauras" won best educational program.  The game Falcon
won in the "Best Technical Achievement" and "Best Simulation"
categories.  Activision got two awards, both for HyperCard products.
Focal Point won in the add-on and utility category while Business
Class pulled in honors for best user interface.

Other winners included Video Works for "Best Creativity Program"
and "Best Vertical Market" program.  MacinTax federal 1986 won "Best
Personal Productivity Program" and "Leisure Suit Larry in the Land
of the Lounge Lizards" won in the Best Adventure area.

The Association also honored journalists for the first time, awarding
Jeffrey Tarter, editor of "Softletter" "Best Industry Analysis."  Bob
Lindstrom of A+ magazine got Best Software Reviewer and John
Markoff of THE NEW YORK TIMES won Best News Reporting.

Awards are chosen by secret ballot among the 300 members of the trade
organization.
[***][4/5/88][***]
BORLAND TOPS AD SPENDERS IN '87
SAN FRANCISCO (NB) -- Borland International got top honors in the
big spender category for magazine advertising last year, according to
ADSCOPE.  Borland shelled out $6.8 million for print ads that filled
704 pages in 21 publications.  Who got the benefit of this spending
spree? Mostly PC WEEK and PC MAGAZINE.  Second to Borland was
rival Microsoft with $6.2 million for ad space in the weekly and
monthly computer publications.

[***][4/5/88][***]
SOFTWARE SALES GROW 111% IN '87
SAN FRANCISCO (NB) -- The hundred largest micro software publishers
in the U.S. achieved average sales increases of a whopping 111% in 1987,
according to "Softletter, a software industry newsletter edited by Jeffrey
Tarter.  His survey, "The 19988 Softletter 100" claims sales among
the top 100 firms reach $2.328 billion, up from 1986's total of
$1.478 billion.  The big three software makers, Microsoft, Lotus,
and Ashton-Tate, generated the lion's share of the year's revenues,
jointly accounting for 48% of 1987's total.

The survey discovered other interesting facts.  Employment in the
top 100 software firms is up to 14,980 compared to 9,642 in 1986.
Some other revelations:  Wordperfect Corporation is now bigger
than Borland and MicroPro International, ranking the fourth largest
in terms of sales.  Borland ranks 6th and MicroPro ranks seventh.

Also, of the 100 firms in the running, 21 are publicly owned,
42 are based in California, ten in Massachusetts and five in Washington
State.

CONTACT:  Jeff Tarter, SOFTLETTER, 617/868-0157
[***][4/5/88][***]
CHIPS AHOY!  INTEL, MIPS, WESTERN ANNOUNCEMENTS
SAN FRANCISCO (NB) -- April has produced a flurry of new developments
on the semiconductor scene.

Intel
-----
Intel will announce a new line of products for what's called the
microcontroller market -- chips that are installed in and the brains
of electronics products from VCRs and toasters to aircraft
simulation chambers.  One of the embedded controllers is expected
to be a version of the popular 80386 microprocessor.

The news conference slated for April 5 is also expected to include an
announcement of Intel's first RISC-based microprocessor, the 80376,
and a faster, more powerful version of the 80386 line, which may
see its first installation in new Sun workstations to be announced
this week (see next story).

MIPS
----
MIPS Computer Systems of Sunnyvale, Ca., running hard against
competitors for a share of the hot RISC, or reduced instruction set,
chip market, has sent up its latest salvo in the form of the R3000,
a RISC-based processor said to have three times the power of
Sun's competing SPARC chip and a speed of 25 megahertz, the
fastest so far.  MIPS also announced the formation of a spin-off
software company headed by the former president of Sun Microsystems,
ironically enough, Owen Brown.  Called Synthesis Software Solutions,
located in Sunnyvale, the spin-off will try to come up with
standard software which makes use of MIPS chips across a wide
range of computer types.

The spin-off is being funded by the three companies licensed to
manufacture the R3000 -- LSI Logic, Performance Semiconductor,
and Integrated Device Technology.

Meanwhile, American Telephone & Telegraph has reached an
agreement with MIPS to assure that the hot new MIPS reduced
instruction set chip will speak Unix. The deal is similar to earlier
agreements to fine tune Unix for Motorola and Sun Microsystems,
leading many analysts to suspect that the long-foretold rise of
Unix in the microcomputer marketplace may be at hand.


WESTERN DIGITAL
----------------
Western Digital, Irvine, Ca., has unveiled a set of chips designed to
create a perfect clone of IBM's PS/2 line.  Western becomes the
second to clone IBM's micro channel architecture, the first was
Chips & Technologies which announced a clone set in January.
Western and Chips & Technologies have working PS/2 clone
prototypes which they are showing publicly, but both firms are still
mum on who the customers are for these hot little items.

[***][4/5/88][***]
SUN TO INTRO 80386-BASED SYSTEM THIS WEEK
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Ca. (NB) -- Sun Microsystems will announce a new
Unix workstation based on a 25 megahertz 80386 chip from Intel
this week, according to NEWSBYTES sources.  The workstation, code-
named Road Runner, ranges in configuration from 8 megabytes
of RAM to a 163 megabyte version, and will be offered from $7,000 to
$22,000, sources say.  The machines, to be announced April 6,
are also expected to compete with both high-end micros and
Unix workstations.
[***][4/5/88][***]
APPLE CLONES FROM EAST AND SOUTH
CUPERTINO, Ca. (NB) -- Apple Computer attorneys must be working
overtime to track clones of the popular Macintosh.  On one hand,
there's the Unitron clone in Brazil which at least temporarily has
evaded a Brazilian government attempt to bury it to please
Washington.  Unitron has secured a court injunction which allows
it to continue to import parts and components needed to assemble
the clone.  So far only a handful of Unitron Macintosh clones have
been sold in Brazil, and Apple is making loud noises about international
legal action should any more them reach the market.

And the Microbytes news service of BIX reports (3/28)  that a Macintosh
clone was shown by a Taiwan firm at Hannover, West Germany's
CeBIT '88 show in March.  The clone was reportedly shown in a back
room to selected guests.  What's more, the manufacturer demanded
complete anonymity before demonstrating it.  The reporter claims the
Taiwan Mac appeared to be an exact working replica of the Macintosh
from the user interface right down to the "little beige toaster"
enclosure. NEWSBYTES was unable to get Apple's reaction to this
report by our deadline.

[***][4/5/88][***]
IN BRIEF --

CONTROL DATA, Minneapolis, has purchased a 20 percent share of
Silicon Graphics of Mountain View, Ca., in a deal valued at $69 million.
Silicon Graphics plans to use the cash for, among other things, the
introduction of  a desktop supercomputer later this year.

HEWLETT PACKARD, Palo Alto, Ca., has promoted Joel Birnbaum, former
head of HP's Spectrum project, to head the new Information
Architecture Group.  The new division will be the "visionary" arm
of HP, designing long-range systems strategy.

TEKTRONIX' computer-aided software engineering division, Beaverton,
Oregon, has been purchased by Mentor Graphics of the same city for $5
million.  In a statement, Mentor Graphics' Chairman Thomas Bruggere
says the deal demonstrates a commitment "to provide our customers
with a complete and integrated set of tools to productively design
and test complex electronic products."


[***][4/5/88][***]
TRINTEX SHOWS MENU, LOW PRICE
WHITE PLAINS, NY (NB) -- Prodigy by Trintex, the IBM-Sears joint
venture seeking to revolutionize the online world with splashy
graphics and  top-drawer vendors, showed its main menu to the
media March 28. Most came away impressed. Especially at $9.95 per
month. Besides insurance companies, games software outfits
(Broderbund and Activision), hotels (Trusthouse Forte) and airlines
(Air France), "USA Today," top columnists (Howard Cosell, Jane Fonda,
Sylvia Porter) the menu offers at-home grocery shopping ("Grocery
Express") among its services.  Curiously, it offers only
electronic mail, no conferencing software like PARTI. When
NEWSBYTES first heard about Trintex, we were told they planned to
be online in the spring. Now sources indicate they'll come online
in the fall. "At the latest," insists their spokesman.

CONTACT: Brian Ek, TRINTEX, [phone]

[***][4/5/88][***]
COCA COLA TELLS VOICE MAIL VENDORS TO CATCH THE WAVE, INTEGRATE
Atlanta (NB) -- Someone at The Coca-Cola Company is apparently
earning their keep. The Atlanta soft drink company is behind a
move to create a unified voice mail standard, according to
"Network World" Magazine. Coke wanted to connect Rolm and VMX
systems, and after asking the two companies for a way to do
that, they pushed the result as *the answer* at a vendor users'
meeting in Atlanta in January. Eastman Kodak, The Travelers
insurance company, GE, and Johnson & Johnson joined Coke in
presenting the IBM-VMX draft as a proposed standard to other
voice mail vendors. Thanks to Coke's heroic efforts, you won't
have to worry about what brand of voice mail system you buy.

CONTACT: THE COCA-COLA COMPANY [phone]

[***][4/5/88][***]
CAPITAL DROPS BID FOR NBI
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO (NB) -- Capital Associates dropped its $7
per share bid for NBI, the former word processor maker,
after NBI's directors refused to let Capital do what Kazan called
"due diligence" on the company's books. The refusal was relayed by
NBI's investment bankers, Hambrecht & Quist of San Francisco, who
said the company "is not for sale." Capital Chairman Richard
Kazan also attacked a quote from NBI officials published in "The
Wall Street Journal" to the effect the market was not giving
proper value to planned new NBI products. "If the stock price
does not now reflect Wall Street's perspective, it would be
interesting to know when the NBI management believes the price
will reflect their evaluation."

CONTACT: Richard Kazan, CAPITAL ASSOCIATES [phone]

[***][4/5/88][***]
CRAY RESEARCH TO LOCATE ITS NEW PLANT IN COLORADO
MINNEAPOLIS (NB) -- Cray Research said its new supercomputer
plant will be in Colorado Springs, CO, convenient to the Air
Force Academy, NORAD, and other sites. The new plant will make
the Cray-3 line due for launch in 1990. The company's current
Cray-2 computers are made in Chippewa Falls, WI, but that's
apparently too far in the woods (not to mention too close to
Steve Chen's supercomputer start-up in Eau Claire) for Cray
comfort.

CONTACT: Gina Bonetti, CRAY RESEARCH, [phone]

[***][4/5/88][***]
TANDY SCHEDULES APRIL 21 PRESS MEETING, PLANS PS/2 CLONE
FORT WORTH, TX (NB) -- Comdex '88 in Atlanta already has a theme.
PS/2 clones. Tandy will reportedly be the first to test the
waters when it meets the press April 21 in New York. Other firms
both here and overseas are expected to follow, most using the Chips +
Technologies PS/2 chip set. IBM has threatened dire consequences
and legal action to anyone copying its technology, especially the
Micro Channel slots.

CONTACT: Michelle Ryan, TANDY (817)33-3900

[***][4/5/88][***]
PECAN CHIPS

BELLSOUTH, Atlanta, turned on its Southern Bell subsidiary's ISDN
system in Dunwoody, an Atlanta suburb. The system offers 2 lines
of 64 kilobits/second service and 1 line of 16 kb/s service on a
single telephone wire.

CINCINNATI MILACRON, Cincinnati, OH, bought Chesapeake Laser
Systems, Lanham, MD, a maker of optical lasers and software for
measurement system which can be used with Milacron industrial
robots.

CONTROL DATA, Minneapolis, bought 20% of Silicon Graphics, a
Mountain View, CA firm which supplies Control Data with
its workstations, for $68.9 million. The move locks in Control
Data's supplies of the workstations.

CROSSTALK, Roswell, GA, a subsidiary of DCA, has scheduled an
April 8 news conference. We've heard they'll announce a new
program which actually does what their old "Remote" program
promised to do, i.e. run someone else's computer from far away.

GMS/DEST, Boca Rotan, FL, is shrinking its Florida fax board
operations and moving them to DEST offices in Milpitas, CA. The
move comes just a few months after GMS sold out to DEST.

JOHN HARLAND, Atlanta, a check printing outfit, got into high-
tech by buying Scantron, Tustin, CA, which makes the kinds of
machines which score standardized tests. (You know, the kinds of
tests you take with Number 2 pencils.) The price: $75 million.

MINISCRIBE, Longmont, CO, announced a sales agreement for its 300
megabyte hard disk drives to Compaq for use in the Deskpro line.

QUADRAM, Norcross, announced a Micro Channel version of its
Mainlink II micro-mainframe board, which competes with the DCA
Irma line using chips from Chips + Technologies.

SOUTHERN BELL, Atlanta, is closing down 976-based "chat lines,"
offering 2 months of free blocking to all 976 calls, and
automatically blocking out-of-state 976 calls, under tariffs
filed with the Georgia Public Service Commission.

UNISYS, Detroit, upgraded its A Series of mainframes and dropped
prices 50%. Models costing just $230,000 will be available by
fall. Included in the new offerings are distributed data software
packages, bundled at prices 50% below what the pieces would cost
separately.

[***][4/5/88][***]
AN APRIL 1 POSTSCRIPT - IMAGINE THERE WERE NO LAWYERS
REDMOND, WA (NB) -- Lawyers for Apple, Microsoft and Hewlett-
Packard stunned the world today by announcing a settlement of the
historic "windowing software" lawsuit they'd entered into in
March. The agreement states that Apple has the rights to a pull-
down menu and a mouse interface. Microsoft immediately announced
it was releasing a new program to replace "Windows" called
"Stained Glass." The new product will feature drag-across menus
and a new trackball-like device pointing which works magnetically
when users wear special pad-like gloves. Microsoft called it the
"cat's paw" interface.

Apple lawyers celebrated this historic victory at their favorite
fern bar at Cupertino, only to be served papers from Apple Corps,
the company which released the Beatles' original records. Apple
Corps says Apple Computer stole their name and seeks $1 billion
damages including good will. The suit was filed in a Texas State
Court in Tyler, near where Ringo has a ranch.


[***][4/5/88][***]
INTERNATIONAL SEMI-TECH BUYS DATACROWN
MARKHAM, Ont. (NB) -- Another unit of Crowntek Inc. has been
sold.  Datacrown, the original service bureau business on which
the diversified high-tech company was built, has gone to
International Semi-Tech Microelectronics Inc., also of Markham.

James Ting, president of International Semi-Tech, told NEWSBYTES
CANADA that details of the deal have yet to be worked out.  But
he said Datacrown will continue to operate as a separate company
under its present name, with its management reporting to one of
Semi-Tech's vice-president.  Ting said the service bureau is a
good fit with Semi-Tech's personal computer manufacturing
business, since PCs are increasingly used as terminals to
mainframe systems, both in-house and remote.  The hope clearly is
that Datacrown's customer base could be fertile ground for
selling Semi-Tech personal computers.

Semi-Tech recorded revenues of C$15.3 million in the fiscal year
ended Dec. 31, 1987.  Ting said the company expects much growth
in 1988, thanks largely to the acquisition of Datacrown and to
its purchase three weeks ago of the U.S. operations of Consumers
Distributing, a retail chain.  Founded in Canada in 1982.  It has
manufacturing facilities in Hong Kong and close ties with China
and South Korea.  The company is traded on the Toronto and Hong
Kong stock exchanges.

CONTACT: INTERNATIONAL SEMI-TECH MICROELECTRONICS INC.,
         [phone]

[***][4/5/88][***]
NAS CANADA MOVES HEADQUARTERS TO MONTREAL
MONTREAL (NB) -- "It's been a long time since anyone has
announced they're moving their head office to Montreal," said
Daniel Johnston, industry minister for the Province of Quebec.
That statement at a recent NAS Canada Inc. press conference is
certainly true.  After the late Rene Levesque and his separatist,
left-leaning Parti Quebecois were elected in the province in
1976, businesses started shifting to Toronto.  Now one computer
company is going back east.

NAS Canada Inc., a joint venture of National Semiconductor and
Sand Technology Systems International of Montreal, will move its
headquarters from the suburbs of Toronto to Montreal.  NAS
Canada, a wholly owned of National Semiconductor until last fall,
has been based in Toronto throughout its history.  The jointly
owned company distributes mainframe computers and peripherals
manufactured by Hitachi Ltd. of Japan.

CONTACT: NAS CANADA INC., Montreal, [phone]

[***][4/5/88][***]
SYSTEMHOUSE BUYS QUEBEC COMPUTER SERVICE FIRM
OTTAWA (NB) -- SHL Systemhouse Ltd. has bought all outstanding
shares of Grenier-St. Pierre and Associates, a computer service
firm based in Quebec City.  Grenier-St. Pierre has C$3 million in
annual revenues and 48 employees.  It specializes in systems
integration, database management and consulting, and about 90 per
cent of its business comes from the Quebec provincial government.

SHL Systemhouse is a subsidiary of Kinburn Corp., which recently
announced a deal with BCE Inc. of Montreal involving purchase of
two BCE subsidiaries (NEWSBYTES CANADA, March 29).

Systemhouse also reported net income of C$12.5 million in the six
months ended Feb. 29, on revenues of C$97.6 million.  That's
healthy growth from C$10 million in profits on C$69.3 million in
revenue in the same period the year before.

CONTACT: SHL SYSTEMHOUSE LTD., [phone]

[***][4/5/88][***]
DOCUMENTS HINT AT TELEPHONE COMPETITION, NEWSPAPER SAYS
OTTAWA (NB) -- Canada may yet get competition in the provision of
long-distance telephone service.  The federal cabinet is
seriously considering an agreement with Canada's provincial
governments -- many of which regulate the telephone companies in
their jurisdictions -- which would lead to a more uniform system
of telephone regulation.  The present system, in which two major
phone companies are federally regulated, most others are
provincially regulated and a couple are also provincially owned,
has been cited as a stumbling block to opening up long-distance
services to national competition.  THE FINANCIAL POST reported
March 29 that a secret cabinet memo and accompanying documents,
which the newspaper obtained, provide for over-all federal
jurisdiction, although provinces would still have some powers.

CNCP Telecommunications, the company most likely to compete with
established telephone systems in the long-distance market, is
meanwhile accusing Bell Canada and British Columbia Telephone Co.
-- the two large federally regulated carriers -- of overpricing
monopoly services, including long-distance, to subsidize
competitive services.  In a submission to the Canadian Radio-
television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), CNCP asked
the regulatory body to stop the practice.  The submission notes
that Bell Canada lost C$107 million on competitive services in
1986.

[***][4/5/88][***]
PUBLISHER ANNOUNCES FRENCH-LANGUAGE COMPUTING NEWSPAPER
TORONTO (NB) -- Paul Plesman is at it again.  The publisher of
COMPUTING CANADA, CANADIAN COMPUTER DEALER NEWS, ELECTRONICS
TIMES and OFFICE MANAGEMENT AND AUTOMATION is launching a French-
language information processing tabloid, DIRECTION INFORMATIQUE,
aimed primarily at the Quebec market.  The controlled-circulation
paper will also be available to French-language readers elsewhere
in Canada.

Gordon Campbell, editor of Plesman's Toronto operations, said the
new tabloid will be launched in June, coinciding with the
Montreal Computer Show.  It will be published monthly to begin
with.  In the past Plesman has launched tabloids as monthlies and
then increased to bi-weekly publication as the papers grew;
Campbell said such a move would depend on how the new publication
is received.

Direction Informatique will have an editorial staff of three in
Montreal, and will draw on translated material from Plesman's 15
editorial staffers in Toronto.  Campbell said the new Montreal
office will also help the English-language publications in
Toronto improve their Quebec coverage.

Founded in 1974, Plesman Publications is now wholly owned by
Evans Technologies Inc. of Toronto, which also owns market
researcher Evans Research Corp.  It is Canada's largest publisher
of computer-oriented periodicals.

CONTACT: PLESMAN PUBLICATIONS LTD., 255 Consumers Rd., Suite 110,
         Willowdale, Ont. M2J 5B1, [phone]

[***][4/5/88][***]
ITAC WANTS LARGE-SCALE PROJECTS TO PROMOTE R&D
TORONTO (NB) -- Canada should create a handful of very large-
scale industry projects to force-feed its technological industry
base, according to the Information Technology Association of
Canada (ITAC).  Graeme Hughes, president of ITAC, said in a
submission to federal and provincial science ministers meeting in
Winnipeg recently that such projects would build up the country's
intellectual capital and produce a ripple effect throughout
Canadian industry.

Measures undertaken by government and private industry so far
won't make Canadian technology companies internationally
competitive for many years, ITAC said.  Canada should take more
dramatic steps to foster a "science culture," the association
said.  ITAC suggested natural language translation using
artificial intelligence, as well as other artificial intelligence
projects, as possibilities.

CONTACT: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ASSOCIATION OF CANADA,
         Suite 300, 211 Consumers Rd., Willowdale, Ont. M2J 4G8,
         [phone]

[***][4/5/88][***]
BITS, EH?
-- SUN MICROSYSTEMS OF CANADA INC., Markham, Ont., has signed a
multi-million dollar deal with JTS Computer Solutions Ltd. of
Toronto.  JTS will integrate distribution, health care and
insurance applications with Sun workstations as a value-added
reseller.

-- RYERSON POLYTECHNICAL INSTITUTE, Toronto, is serious enough
about preventing software piracy to expell students who get caught
at it.  The polytechnic's campus newspaper THE RYERSONIAN quoted
Tim Daciuk, co-ordinator of the Academic Computing Information
Centre at Ryerson, as saying one student has been expelled for
software piracy and it could happen again.  Such drastic action
isn't likely unless the student persists in using pirated
software after being warned not to, Daciuk added.

-- CLARIS CORPORATION's Canadian office in Markham, Ont.,  has
announced that MacWrite 5.0, MacPaint 2.0, MacProject II and
MacDraw 1.9.6 are now available in Canada under the Claris label.

-- CNCP TELECOMMUNICATIONS, Toronto, has announced a cross-border
service agreement with AT&T, under which both carriers will
transmit to the other's facilities voice, data and image signals.
Mach III, CNCP's high-speed fibre optic private line service,
will connect to AT&T's Accunet T1.5 service.



[***][4/5/88][***]
IBM'S HIRING SPREE REFLECTING SALES INCREASE
TOKYO (NB) -- IBM Japan will hire over 500 technicians, mainly
system engineers and hardware/software programmers this year.
That will be a record-breaking number for IBM Japan, exceeding
370 new people employed in 1984.  IBM Japan's decision to hire so
many new people reflects the company's healthy business trend.  IBM
Japan's fiscal 1987 sales were over 1 trillion yen ($8 billion),
which is a 20% increase over the previous year.  In terms of
specific products, the 3090, the System/36, and the 5550 were
popular.  Also, the company benefited from exports of a
number of 3.5-inch hard disk drives for the PS/2 to its parent
company in the U.S.  IBM Japan expects a 15% sales increase this
fiscal year.

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

[***][4/5/88][***]
FUJITSU DEVELOPED 64M DRAM TECHNOLOGY
TOKYO (NB) -- Fujitsu has developed a basic technology to produce
a 64 megabit dynamic RAM.  Fujitsu's spokesman says the company
can make a 16 megabit DRAM at present, but the technology can
duly be applied to make a 64 megabit DRAM.  Fujitsu kept silent
at the International Solid State Circuit Conference in San
Francisco in February this year by not announcing its 16M DRAM.
But Fujitsu has apparently shown off its advanced technology this
time, demonstrating that this computer giant can make a 16M DRAM
very easily.

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

[***][4/5/88][***]
UNISYS JAPAN FINALLY BORN
TOKYO (NB) -- After a lengthy discussion for almost over a year,
Univac Japan and Burroughs Japan merged to form Unisys Japan on
April 1.  Former Vice President Koichi Nishikawa of Mitsui-
Bussan, which was Univac Japan's major stock holder, has assumed
the post of the president in the new firm.  Unisys Japan has
about 7,000 employees and expects to rake in $2 billion in
the initial year.  It is the fifth largest computer distributor
in Japan, following Fujitsu, NEC, IBM Japan, and Hitachi.

CONTACT: Unisys Japan, 2-17-51 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107

[***][4/5/88][***]
TRON-BASED MULTITASKING MS-DOS OPERATING SYSTEM
TOKYO (NB) -- Tokyo-based software house Micronics has developed
a multitasking operating system, RXDOS, using the TRON architecture.
RXDOS is based on NEC's I-TRON, called RX116.  Micronics has
modified RX116, and added an MS-DOS support function.  RXDOS runs
on personal computers with NEC's V20, V30, V40, and V50.  This
operating system will be sold through Software Japan on an OEM
basis.

CONTACT: Micronics, Maejima Bldg., 1-17-3 Minami-Ikebukuro,
         Toshima-ku, Tokyo 171

[***][4/5/88][***]
JAPANESE SOFTWARE FOR MACINTOSH
TOKYO (NB) -- A Japanese software venture Ergo Soft has developed
three types of Japanese language programs for Apple's Macintosh.
The enhanced new EG series includes Japanese desktop publishing
software EG Book 1.2, word processing software EG Word 3.0, and
telecommunication software EG Talk 1.2.  All of the programs run
on the Japanese operating system, Kanji Talk 2.0.  Various fonts
are currently available for these programs, and high-quality
kanji documents can be produced with a combination of EG Book 1.2
and EG Word 3.0.  The programs will soon be released at 68,000
yen ($548) for EG Book, 59,000 yen ($482) for EG Word, and 38,000
yen ($306) for EG Talk.

CONTACT: Ergo Soft, Kiyo Bldg., 3-9-1 Akasaka, Minato-ku,
         Tokyo 107

[***][4/5/88][***]
JAPANESE LAN SOFTWARE FOR MACINTOSH
TOKYO (NB) -- Osaka-based software venture Data Control Ltd. will
release a Japanese version of a local area network (LAN) for the
Macintosh in May.  The software is a Japanese version of TOPS,
which was originally developed by Tops Corp. in the U.S.  With
TOPS, data can be exchanged between the Macintosh and IBM PC, or
UNIX-based workstations.  Japanese TOPS is priced at 46,000 yen
or $371.  Data Control plans to release versions for NEC
PC-9801 and IBM Japan's 5550 by the end of the year.

CONTACT: Data Control Ltd., 11-9 Obase-cho, Tennoji-ku, Osaka-shi
         543, Japan

[***][4/5/88][***]
KANJI BUBBLE-JET PRINTER FOR MACINTOSH
TOKYO (NB) -- Canon has shipped a super-fast and high resolution
"bubble-jet" printer for Apple Computer's Macintosh.  Bubble-jet
130 prints at 360 dot per inch (dpi), which exceeds 300 dpi of the
LaserWriter.  Also, the printer prints 220 words per second.
With a Japanese operating system, the user can print a Japanese
language document.  The printer program was jointly developed
with a software house in Hawaii.  The price is 169,000 yen or
$1,363.

CONTACT: Canon Sales, 3-11-28 Mita, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108

[***][4/5/88][***]
170 EMPLOYEES WANT TO BE A PRESIDENT AT FUJI XEROX
TOKYO (NB) -- Fuji Xerox recruited would-be presidents among its
employees to set up new venture firms.  It's part of the
company's new project called venture business challenge program.
The successful employees, who have proposed good ideas for new
businesses, will receive all the help they need from Fuji Xerox to
set up their own venture firms.  And they will also serve as
president of their new firm. Fuji Xerox says 170 employees have
put forth their business ideas and that most of the
proposed businesses are in the areas of service, software, and
telecommunications.  The first new venture is expected to start
by the end of the year.

CONTACT: Fuji Xerox, Kokusai Sano Bldg., 3-3-5 Akasaka, Minato-ku
         Tokyo 107

[***][4/5/88][***]
SEIKO-EPSON ESTABLISHES INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
TOKYO (NB) -- Seiko-Epson set up an educational organization,
dubbed Seiko-Epson Institute of Technology (SEIT), in its
company site in Nagano, in the middle part of Japan, on April 1.
SEIT aims to create engineers for  precision electronic
machinery.  The students will have 3,600 hours of lessons during the
two year term.  Most of the time, they'll be given practical
vocational training to become engineers at high-tech
industries in Japan and abroad.  SEIT accepted only 30
students this year.

CONTACT: Seiko-Epson, 3-3-5 Yamato, Suwa-shi, Nagano-ken 392

[***][4/5/88][***]
SUPER AI LANGUAGE LABORATORY SET UP
TOKYO (NB) -- One of the major laboratories for developing a
powerful artificial intelligence language has been created by
a joint investment of a government affiliated company and eleven
private firms, including Oki, Fujitsu, Mitsubishi, Sharp,
Toshiba, Japan DEC, Data General Japan, NEC, and Hitachi.  The
laboratory will make experiments and researches of an artificial
intelligence system description language Common ESP, and seek
practical use of this powerful AI technology for four years
through March 1992.  Total amount of budget for this research is
estimated at $18.5 million.

CONTACT: Artificial Intelligence Language Laboratory, 3-15-15
         Shiba, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105

[***][4/5/88][***]
<<< SUSHI BYTES >>>

3.5-INCH OPTICAL DISK DRIVE -- Hitachi has developed a prototype
of a 3.5-inch optical magnetic disk drive.  The disk drive is
measured 4.1 x 10.2 x 15cm.  Reportedly, the data write/read speed of
this floppy disk is 5 million bit per second, which is almost ten
times faster than ordinary floppy disks.

SONY'S NEWS IN EUROPE -- Sony has started marketing its 68020-
based 32-bit workstation the NEWS in Europe.  The company has
recently created Sony Microsystems Europe in W. Germany for that
purpose.  Sony expectes to sell 1,000 systems during the initial
year.

VERSATILE PC DISPLAY -- Fujitsu has developed a highly sensitive
superimposing technique, which displays the screen images of a TV
and personal computers simultaneously.  The technique also
supports still images and multi-screen images.  Fujitsu is now
developing this display for various computers.

CHIP PRODUCTION INCREASING -- Production of 1 megabit dynamic RAM
during the April-June period in Japan will be 43.6 million units,
which is 44.4 % increase over the previous year.  In the July-
September period, it will rise by 28.4 %, says the Ministry of
International Trade and Industry.




[***][4/5/88][***]
HALF-A-MILLION ATTENDEES AT HANOVER FAIR 1988
HANNOVER, GERMANY (NB) -- Yes there were 500,000 people that visited
Hanover fair this year compared to 406,000 last year. In total,
there were 2,730 exhibitors, 980 from foreign lands and 97,500
foreign visitors, up from 69,000 last year (the entire visiting
crowd of Comdex Fall is 99,000).

All in all, the fair was a success and all eyes are now set for
CeBIT 1989 which will be held at Hannover from 8th till the 15th of
March 1989.

[***][4/5/88][***]
APPLE OPENS EUROPEAN DEVELOPMENT CENTER IN PARIS
PARIS, FRANCE (NB) -- "The European Development Center is designed
to enhance our appearance in Europe," said Michael Spindler,
Apple's senior vice president, research & development, at the
opening ceremony in Paris. The center, which will be directed by
Edward Colby, is the first development center outside of
Cupertino, Apple's US headquarters.

There are many projects which will be handled by the European
development center, the main of which is research into data
communications methods and procedures and peripheral device
support.  When one considers that Europe has different standards
to the US, especially in the communications field, such an R&D
center is a rather intelligent move.

[***][4/5/88][***]
1990 SOFTWARE MARKET IN EUROPE WILL TOP 3 MILLION UNITS
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM (NB) -- The European software market is set
to expand appreciably over the next two years. According to a
study published by Dataquest, which compared low cost (less that
$200) and high cost software, the former is set to reach to 3
million units in 1990 from the current 1.8 million units. In the
latter case, there will be an increase from 850,000 units to 1.2
million copies of software sold in 1992.

All these sales, which are only from Europe, are mainly due to the
success envisaged by Schneider and Amstrad, Europe's two main low-
cost systems suppliers.

[***][4/5/88][***]
CHIP RATES PS/2 MODEL 30 BEST SELLER FOR APRIL 1988
MUNICH, WEST GERMANY (NB) -- "Chip," West Germany biggest computer
magazine, has rated the PS/2 model 30 number one for April, the
first time a PS/2 system has taken the lead in this market.
Following the leader, is the Macintosh II which is increasingly
being used by research centers and universities. Following the
Mac II is the Commodore PC-20. The fourth position is held by the
Schneider PC1640 (the EGA PC), the IBM PS/2 model 60 (the PS/2
model 50 has been erased from the list since its sales have been
extremely limited, probably due to the incredibly slow hard disk),
the Zenith Easy PC, the Apple IIGS, the Compaq Deskpro 286, the
Commodore PC40 and the Tandon PCA.

In the home computer section, the list is headed by the Commodore
64 (now in its 9th year), the Amiga 500, the Commodore 128D, the
Atari 520STM, the Schneider 464 (a cassette powered Z80 home
system), the Schneider Joyce (a PC with a printer and a WP
program), the Atari 1040ST, the Atari MegaST (giving memory to the
masses - one wonders at what loss, now that RAM chips are nearing
the price of gold), the Schneider 6128, and the Amiga 1000.

[***][4/5/88][***]
THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE COMPUTER
BERLIN, WEST GERMANY (NB) -- No, it is not fifty years from 1946 when
ENIAC, the famous computer, made its mark on the world, but fifty
years from 1938, as in '88.  In 1938, Konrad Zuse, a German engineer,
designed and built Z1, the world's first electrically powered
computer. Z1, which used telephone relays, had, in fact, 2600 of them,
and used them in a programmable fashion to perform limited tasks.
The system used tapes with holes in them (similar to the ones used
by Holerith who invented the punch card), which were read by a device
that executed the various commands presented to it. The system had
64 x 22 memory (bits or bytes is immaterial in this case), and
performed 15 to 20 operation per second! Of course now everyone is
talking about 1 MIPS (Million Operations per second).

The Differential Analyser, which was used to integrate numerical
equations, was the second major computer which used rods and
pulleys to plot the resulting sum on paper at one end. The first
glimpse of this was in the film "Worlds in Collision" which dealt
with an new planet crashing on the earth.

Following the analyser, the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator
Analyser Computer) was made which used vacuum tubes for its
operation. It used 17,000 tubes, 1,500 relays, 70,000 resistors and
10,000 capacitors! It needed continuous maintenance since tubes have
a very short life span and produced enough heat to keep an entire
building nicely warm on a continuous basis!

It is also interesting to point out that most of the original
pioneers of the computer business had German nationality. Zuss and
von Neumann, the better known, were Germans who later moved to the
US when the war years approached.

[***][4/5/88][***]
EUROBITS....

        Aldus PageMaker 3.0 has been introduced by Positronica,
the Belgian distributor. Version 3.0 which is for the PC and the
Macintosh, offers flowing text capabilities, style sheets (similar
to Ventura), new graphics features and image control.

      PageMaker has been rated by Intelligent Electronics as the
best seller desktop publisher product. It takes almost 50% of the
sales of all the combined DTP software.

[***][4/5/88][***]
AND IN CASE YOU WONDERED ABOUT THAT MACINTOSH CLONE AT HANNOVER...
 (see NEWSBYTES WEST this week)
The truth is that the Mac shown is an identical product as
that shown by a Brazilian manufacturer (or at least its
brochure) at Comdex Fall, in Las Vegas. The Mac which apparently
is to be built and sold by a Taiwan manufacturer for the
incredibly optimistic price of $760, is to have 1MB of RAM and
one 3.5" disk drive. Although other reports mentioned of a
reverse engineering job, it is worth remembering that the Mac
itself is not a very complex piece of hardware. In fact, the
complexity of the Mac is less than that of an IBM AT. What is
however very difficult is the ROM based operating system which
is the property of Apple. Short of copying it, there is far too
much work involved in re-producing it. It requires at least ten
times as much work as the IBM PC BIOS. Now you know. Relax.




[***][4/5/88][***]
THANKS, JOHN - WE NEEDED THAT

  Editorial by Dana Blankenhorn, NEWSBYTES South/Midwest Bureau Chief


You've read a lot of stories lately about how stupid
Apple Computer is in trying to protect its Macintosh interface by
suing Microsoft over Windows (and IBM's Presentation Manager),
and suing Hewlett-Packard over whatever-it-is they make.

Apple, in general, and John Sculley in particular, are
being arrogant, we've been told. They're trying to lay exclusive
claim to something Steve Jobs saw in a demo at Xerox' Palo Alto
Research Center. "For crying out loud," say the critics. I fully
expect IBM to issue a press release next week bemoaning the fact
that Apple is deliberately spreading FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and
Doubt) in the computer market with this lawsuit. (Sort of like
Jimmy Swaggart calling Jim Bakker a....never mind.)

Well, allow me to disagree with the conventional wisdom.
I think there's a valid public service being done here, an
attempt to clear up an important legal point which has remained
vague for centuries. Just when is a clone a legal knock-off, and
when is it a shameless rip-off?

The law is badly split on this question. On one extreme
we have the toy business, where the makers of the Cabbage Patch
dolls successfully sued Topps' Garbage Pail Kids, implying that
even a satire of a commercial product can be kept out of the
market. On the other hand we have Victor Costa, a Houston, Texas
clothes designer who shamelessly copies big name designers like
Ungaro, Cassini, and Lacroix and has the hoi-polloi beating down
his door for the knock-offs. In between we have the record
business, where famous song writers are constantly being hauled
into court by unknown bartenders charging that their greatest
hits were stolen, unconsciously, from something the unknown
hummed on a date in 1964.

In computing, the law is completely up in the air. In a
case NEWSBYTES SOUTH covered last year SoftKlone Distributing of
Tallahassee, which admitted it copied the "look and feel" of
Crosstalk XVI in its "Mirror," was able to stay on the market
with just minor alterations on its main status screen after an
18-month legal fight.

The question of whether Windows copies the Mac may seem
trivial to you, but in fact it isn't. We're caught between
wanting standards and low-priced software on the one hand, and
wanting to get the full benefits of our own great ideas on the
other. (Mr. Costa, the clothes designer, admits he's now a bit
miffed that other designers are copying him.) Lawyers will have
to decide whether we can, indeed, have it all. I wish them good
luck in their efforts. I just hope that, at the end, they can
come up with an answer to the question to which I still wanna know the
answer -- when is a clone an illegal copy? I'll only get mad
if one side chickens out and settles out-of-court.

          -- Dana Blankenhorn, IP2004

-------------------------------------------
What do you think? We sure would like to hear from you. Write IP1039,
the editor.



[***][4/5/88][***]
LOTUS ANNOUNCES SOFTWARE TO LINK DATA
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (NB) -- Lotus Development Corp. says a new
product, Blueprint, will allow 1-2-3 users to manipulate external
data as if it were part of the spreadsheet. The product will
first be available as a "tool kit" for $250, later this year,
Lotus said. Later, the company will build the data access
architecture into its applications programs, including the
belated 1-2-3 Release 3. According to Lotus, a user will be able
to access data from another program simply by hitting one key.

The announcement of the new product, albeit a bit vaporous, was
welcome news for the hard-hit Lotus. The company's announcement
that it would not release Release 3 until the end of the year,
coupled with an informal Securities and Exchange Commission
investigation, and a key resignation, sent the company's stock
tumbling by $7 per share. The Blueprint announcement bumped up
the Lotus stock 50 cents, to $22.50.

In other Lotus news, the company has named W. Frank King III as
senior vice president of software products, replacing Charles
Digate, who quit over a dispute with Lotus Chairman Jim Manzi.
King was vice president of development for IBM's entry systems
division.

[***][4/5/88][***]
VERBATIM TO ANNOUNCE PC-BASED OPTICAL READ-WRITE DISK SYSTEMS
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (NB) -- Watch for Eastman Kodak Co.'s Verbatim
division to launch read-write optical disk systems for personal
computers this fall. The drives will use a laser to allow the
disks to be rewritten, giving users access to copious amounts of
data storage. According to Verbatim, the company's 3.5-inch
removable optical cartridges will hold 50 megabytes each,
through the vertical stacking of data that is the key to optical
disks. Verbatim hopes to price its cartridges at $1 per megabyte,
with the drives going for $800 to $1,500. Sources indicate that
Verbatim is also trying to line up customers to OEM the drives in
a series of PC clones.

[***][4/5/88][***]
AN WANG IN HALL OF FAME
CRYSTAL CITY, Va. (NB) -- Computer pioneer An Wang is one of four
men who have been inducted into the National Inventors Hall of
Fame. Wang, 68, discoverer of the magnetic pulse controlling device,
is the founder of Wang Laboratories Inc. of Lowell, Mass. He
founded the company in 1951, six years after coming to the U.S.
from China to study at Harvard. At the induction ceremony, Wang
called for "a forward-looking, aggressive educational policy."
Joining Wang in the Hall of Fame, managed by the U.S. Commerce
Department, were Frank Colton, discoverer of the oral
contraceptive, Elisha Graves Otis, inventor of an elevator safety
system, and Louis W. Parker, inventor of the television receiver.
Colton, born in Poland in 1923, and Parker, born in Hungary in
1906, were also immigrants. Colton and Parker also attended the
ceremonies. Otis died in 1861. The Hall of Fame, opened in 1973,
now has 72 inductees. The first inductee was Thomas Edison.

[***][4/5/88][***]
DOS TO SPEAK ENGLISH
ARLINGTON, Va. (NB) -- An Iranian artificial intelligence expert
has developed software called DOStalk that translates English
into MS-DOS commands. Bahran Dean Ansari, 25, has sold more than
1,000 of the software packages at $89.95, and hopes to work with
area defense firms to bundle the software into complex defense
computer systems. He says the Defense Department is considering
shipping the product with all its portables and laptops. "It's
going to eliminate a giant headache," Ansari told NEWSBYTES. He
says the software is particularly useful for attorneys who want
to concentrate on the application, not on DOS. If a creative user
tries to tell the computer something like "Slam-dunk that file,"
the program will let the user know it doesn't understand and ask
for a rephrase. The program is written in LISP, Ansari said.

CONTACT: Sak Technologies, 1600 North Oak Street, Suite 931W,
         Arlington VA 22209, 703-522-6425.

[***][4/5/88][***]
AD AGENCY TROUBLES MAY LEAD IBM TO TAKE A WALK
NEW YORK (NB) -- Major resignations at the Lord, Geller,
Federick, Einstein ad agency have resulted in a stern letter to
the firm from its largest account, International Business
Machines. IBM said Lord Geller has 48-hours to name a new IBM
team. The letter from Bernard Puckett, IBM's vice president for
communications, said Big Blue has "great concern over the ability
of Lord Geller...to properly service the IBM account." The letter
came after six top Lord Geller executives, and more than 30
other important agency employees, walked out and formed a new
agency. No word on what assurances Lord Geller has made to IBM.

[***][4/5/88][***]
ENTRE WINNING IN COURT, ON THE BALANCE SHEET
McLEAN, Va. (NB) -- Entre Computer Centers Inc. has won its
fourth consecutive legal fight with former franchisees. A federal
district judge in Alexandria, Va., dismissed eight lawsuits
against the company. The suits, filed by a British group, do not
come under jurisdiction of U.S. courts, the judge ruled.
According to Entre officials, only a smattering of suits,
including several in France, Australia, and Britain, remain from
the the flood of litigation that nearly swamped the computer
retailer in the 1986 computer slump.

But now the sun is shining at Entre. The company reports profits
of $1.4 million (14 cents per share) in the second quarter on
sales of $31.7 million. that compares to a $2.7 million loss on
sales of $21.9 million for the second quarter of 1987. Six month
revenue rose 59 percent and profits hit $2.5 million (26 cents
per share), versus $2.2 million of red ink for the first half of
last year.

[***][4/5/88][***]
NEWS NIBBLES FROM AROUND THE REGION

IBM chairman John Akers saw his pay check increase 18 percent in
1987, to $840,896 (sounds like a new Intel chip), at a time when
IBM was faring poorly in the marketplace. IBM profits in 1987
rose only 9.8 percent and would have fallen but for special, non-
recurring earnings. Nice work, if you can get it.

MCI COMMUNICATIONS of Washington, foreseeing real cash flow for
the first time in history, plans to start buying back the 16
percent of the company now held by IBM. Another priority: cutting
MCI's debt.

PROGRAMS IN MOTION of Wayland, Mass., becomes 1st-Class Expert
Systems, Inc. as of July 1. The idea is to make a tighter
identification with the company's 1st-Class expert systems
development software.

WARNER COMPUTER SYSTEMS of New York says hardware sales in the
microcomputer sales and maintenance division increased 20 percent
between 1986 and 1987. Chairman Harvey Krieger told the company's
annual meeting that Warner's financial databases and related
hardware are also doing well.

CULLINET SOFTWARE INC. of Westwood, Mass., says that founder John
Cullinane is the new chairman and chief executive officer. The
announcement completes Cullinane's return to the troubled firm
after his retirement eight months ago. Cullinane, 53, retired in
September, but returned to the firm in December as vice chairman.

COMPUCARE CO. of Reston, Va., has been bought by Ronald
Aprahamian, who sold the hospital computer services firm three
years ago to Baxter Travenol Laboratories for $73 million. The
company promptly fell on hard times, and Aprahamian, 41, is said
to have bought it back from Baxter for far less than what he got
when he sold it. "It's back to basics," Aprahamian announced.



[***][4/5/88][***]
ACORN SPIRALS INTO THE RED
Cherry Hinton, Cambridge (NB) -- Acorn computers has announced a
#2.38 million loss for 1987.  The announcement comes in the light
of a #1.35 million profit for the preceding year and a 22 per
cent reduction in turnover from #46.7 million to #36.1 million in
1987.

The company attributes much of the losses as due to the old
custom products division, the closure of which was completed late
last year.  Another reason for the losses is that quantity
shipments of Acorn's Risc-based Archimedes machine did not start
until the third quarter of last year.

The results have dismayed industry analysts, many of whom
predicted a #1 million loss for the year ended 31 December 1987.
NEWSBYTES UK hopes that sales of the Archimedes will pick up this
year, and that Acorn solves its production problems on the
Archimedes 440.

* Acorn has introduced an I/O expansion card for the Archimedes.
The card provides an 8Mhz bus interface, analogue and user ports.
Very handy for hooking up a joystick to the Archimedes.

CONTACT: ACORN COMPUTERS, Cherry Hinton, Cambridge.
         Tel: [phone]

[***][4/5/88][***]
APRICOT: TETRA DEAL AND VX9000 SIGN-UPS
Edgbaston, Birmingham (NB) -- It's been a good week for Apricot,
the Birmingham-based high-end PC specialist.  As well as landing
a reciprocal deal with Tetra, the business software house, the
company has started appointing the first systems houses for its
powerful VX9000 series of parallel processing computers.

The Tetra Business Systems deal allows Apricot to start selling
Tetra's Dos, Xenix and Unix accounting packages.  Tetra product
dealers in turn now have the option to sell Apricot's range of
80286/386-based PCs on which to run Tetra accounting packages.

"The hardware/software combination represents an extremely
competitive business accounting solution," said Tetra MD Sean
Dowling.  "This agreement will enable us to address an
expanding market through Apricot's extensive reseller base,"
he added.

CONTACT: APRICOT COMPUTERS PLC, Apricot House, 111 Hagley Road,
         Edgbaston, Birmingham B16 8LB.      Tel: [phone].

[***][4/5/88][***]
FRONTIER LOW-COST ST CLOCK CARD DEBUTS
Harrogate, Yorkshire (NB) -- Frontier Software, the Atari and
Commodore add-on specialist, has launched the Forget-Me-Clock
clock card for the Atari 520 and 1040 ST series.

The clock card costs #22-95 and fits under the ST's keyboard.
Power is via three rechargeable AA-size batteries which
draw power from the ST when the computer is switched on.

Martin Walsh, Frontier's software marketing manager, reckons the
card is the cheapest on the market.  "We think that we've set a
low enough price for the card to be added to all ST's," he told
NEWSBYTES UK.

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

[***][4/5/88][***]
MICRONET GEARS UP FOR A FIFTH ANNIVERSARY RE-LAUNCH
London, UK (NB) -- Micronet, the microcomputing specialist
database on Prestel, has its fifth birthday this month.  To
celebrate the milestone, the company is relaunching itself onto
the UK's online market.  From April 14th, the company will have a
new look, new management team and a new advertising campaign.

"Micronet is the most successful service of its kind in Europe,
but that's no reason to be complacent," said John Tomany, MD of
the Telemap Group, which runs Micronet.  "We intend to build on
our success with a product that will carry us into the 1990's,"
he added.

The changes to Micronet include an enhanced daily news service
covering the home and small business computing market, and new
online magazines for the Atari ST, Commodore Amiga and PC
compatibles.  New routing and indexing will, claims Tomany, make
the service easier to use.

CONTACT: TELEMAP GROUP LTD, Durrant House, 8 Herbal Hill,
         London EC1R 5EJ.               Tel: [phone].

[***][4/5/88][***]
PRECISION SUES SOFTWARE LABORATORIES
Dublin, Eire (NB) -- An interesting legal argument seems to be
brewing between Precision Software and Software Laboratories, the
publishers of Unigem, a Unix-based accountancy package.

Precision seems to have been incensed at Software Laboratories'
deals worth #12 million with NEC Australia and Linkor SA of
France, and has obtained an order in the Dublin High Court which
legally obliges Software Laboratories to produce Unigem's source
code at the UK's National Software Council.

An earlier legal order, also obtained in the Dublin High Court,
prevents Software Laboratories from "interfering with, altering,
destroying or modifying the Unigem product."

Both firms are closed for the Easter break as NEWSBYTES UK goes
to press, but a Precision Software spokesman commented that the
company was "seeking to gain recompense from Software
Laboratories for infringement of its ownership of and rights in
the product."

Software Laboratories, meanwhile, has indicated that it intends
to defend the legal action.

CONTACT: PRECISION SOFTWARE, 6 Park Terrace, Worcester Park,
         Surrey KT4 7JZ.                   Tel: [phone].

[***][4/5/88][***]
TELECOMSOFT #1: 9 AWARDS FROM 3 MAGAZINES
London, UK (NB) -- It's been a busy and successful year for
Telecomsoft, the games software division of British Telecom.  No
less than nine software awards have been awarded to the group by
three of the UK's most prestigious computer games magazines.

Computer & Video Games magazine awarded the group four awards.
Adventure of the Year award went to Guild of Thieves, whilst
Knight Orc came into the Adventure of the Year runner-up
category.  Best Arcade conversion went to Bubble Bobble,
which scored a commendation from the judges.  The final C&VG
award went to Andrew Braybrook, who clinched the runner-up
position for the programmer of the year award.

ZZAP! 64 reader's awards came up with the same titles - Guild of
Thieves as the best adventure game, Bubble Bobble as the best
platform game and best arcade conversion, and Andrew Braybrook
came out tops as the magazine's programmer of the year.

Crash magazine meanwhile, awarded The Pawn with the title of Best
Adventure Game of 1987.

NEWSBYTES UK expects Telecomsoft to shortly announce the
building of an extension to its London HQ, in order to store all
the trophies - or is that just wishful thinking?

* Telecomsoft comprises three labels in the UK - Rainbird, which
publishes high-end 16-bit and 8bit games software; Firebird,
which publishes middle-range arcade-type games; and Silverbird,
which concentrates on the low-price end of the games software
market.
[***][4/5/88][***]
TELECOMSOFT #2: ICOM SIMULATIONS SIGN-UP
London, UK (NB) - As well as scoring a coup with its magazine
awards (see above story), Telecomsoft has secured a two-year
contract with Icom Simulations UK, the British arm of the Apple
Mac adventure specialist games house.

Icom, renowned for Deja Vu and other Macventure products, will
produce six games for Telecomsoft over the next two years.  The
games production will be equally divided between Icom's UK and US
offices.

Paul Hibbard, Telecomsoft publisher, is pleased with the deal.
"We're delighted to be entering into this relationship with Icom
as we believe they are at the forefront of 16-bit development.
Deja Vu is the most popular game ever on the Mac, and we're proud
to be publishing its sequel, together with five other games of
similar high quality," he said.

So when can Mac users expect to see the Icom goodies available in
the UK and Europe?  Very soon.  NEWSBYTES UK hears that the first
game is an animated shoot-em-dead game set in the Wild West and
featuring 'thundering gun battles between cowboys, indians and
other desperate characters.'

Umm, thanks, but no thanks - and you thought Space Invaders
was violent?

CONTACT: TELECOMSOFT. 64-76 New Oxford Street, London WC1A 1PS.
         Tel: [phone].

[***][4/5/88][***]
FILE TRANSFER COSTS - A SORRY TALE
London, UK (NB) -- File transfer protocols are all very well, but
the more esoteric protocols can cause problems, as Keith
Lockstone, a NEWSBYTES UK reader, has found to his cost.

Lockstone discovered that, once a Z-Modem transfer has been
effected over a packet switching network (PSS, Telenet, Tymnet
etc.) there is no way out of a 'locked' connection other than
dropping the line.

Unfortunately, when Lockstone dropped a data circuit into BIX,
the Byte magazine online information service, last weekend, he
was left logged into the system.  It appears that, because BIX
alters the status of the data call when Z-Modem is engaged, there
is no way that a caller can 'drop' the call.  As far as BIX is
concerned, the call is still 'engaged,' and remains so until BIX
realizes that the caller has logged off, even if the data line
has been dropped completely.

That's fine with file transfer protocols which simply time out
and abort.  Z-Modem times out okay, but it doesn't abort a call.
It merely sets the timer to zero and attempts the packet transfer
again.  As of press time, NEWSBYTES UK can report that Lockstone's
'call' to BIX had been connected for five hours.  As it's Easter,
the BIX help line opens in around 40 hours.  We'll bring you news
of how Lockstone fares with his problem in next week's issue.

In the meantime, before you use Z-Modem via a packet-switching
network, think carefully.  NEWSBYTES UK will stick to Kermit and
Z-Modem for the time being...
[***][4/5/88][***]
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
+ BRITBYTES - Bytes of news from around the UK... +
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

BRITISH TELECOM has announced a freeze on its telephone charges
until the 31st of March 1989.  NEWSBYTES UK notes that MERCURY is
still between 15 and 20 per cent cheaper to use as an alternative
telecommunications carrier.

The UK's CAP GROUP is to merge with SEMA-METRA of France.  The
joint company, to be known as Semacap, will become Europe's
second-largest computer supplier after France's Cap Gemini
Sogeti.

INMAC, the PC catalogue specialist (0344-424333) has launched a
low-cost Hayes/Steebek-compatible high speed modem.  The #425 V22
Modem is capable of 300/300, 1200/75, 1200/1200 and 2400/2400
baud and is available on 30 day risk-free trial.

LOTUS DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION has unveiled BLUEPRINT, a bi-
directional data access package for linking data from several
applications package.  The product will be available for the PC
in the second half of this year.

MERCURY COMMUNICATIONS, the alternative UK telecomms carrier, has
introduced new tariffs on its transatlantic digital satellite
service, as well as a new range of high-speed digital leased
services to the Far East and Australia.

MIGENT INTERNATIONAL has launched its EMERALD BAY relational
database package in the UK.  The package is claimed to be the
first multi-user relational database package that is independent
of the PC's language and operating system.  Four configurations
are initially available:  #159 for a Lotus 1-2-3 add-in, #395
each for a database programming language and tool kit system, and
#595 for the database server itself.

As of this week, the full NEWSBYTES international edition (all
seven bureau editions) are available on MICROLINK (0625-878888).
MicroLink is available at local call rates in the UK and over
much of Europe and adds a further 10,000 potential readers to
NEWSBYTES.

TANDATA COMMUNICATIONS of Malvern, Worcestershire, has secured a
prestigious deal to supply its Tandata PA viewdata/ASCII
terminals to the Lancastrian Building Society.  The terminals are
now in use at 10 of the Society's branches, as well as Society's
head office.