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/nb880524.257

Text File | 1991-08-18 | 65KB | 1,314 lines

[***][5/24/88][***]
MICROSOFT CHALKS UP FIRST WIN AGAINST APPLE
SAN JOSE, Ca. (NB) -- Microsoft has been granted a request to separate the
suit filed against it by Apple Computer into two separate pieces -- one
a licensing, the other the notorious "look and feel" dispute.  Microsoft
attorneys claim that the licensing dispute, in which Apple has charged
Microsoft with going beyond the bounds of a 1985 agreement to use
copyrighted elements of the Macintosh display, is the key to the entire
case, and if settled in Microsoft's favor, the entire suit is settled.
The U.S. district judge hearing the case has predicted a trial on
the licensing issue could come as early as October.

The second half of the suit, whether Microsoft and Hewlett Packard are
violating Apple's visual copyrights, may not reach a trial stage until
late 1989, at best, say those close to the case, and then only if
the licensing dispute is settled in Apple's favor.

While Microsoft attorneys and spokesmen applauded the judge's ruling,
an Apple spokeswoman merely agreed with it, saying that if it will move
the case forward, "that is exactly what we are looking for."
[***][5/24/88][***]
APPLE USERS GET THEIR OWN ONLINE SYSTEM
CUPERTINO, Ca. (NB) -- Apple Computer has announced a new
online service devoted exclusively to the interests of Apple
Computer owners.  Starting this summer, AppleLink - Personal
Edition, managed by Quantum Computer Services in Vienna,
Virginia, is expected to offer electronic mail, stock quotes,
conferencing, software downloading, and other services, in
direct competition with other information utilities such as The
Source,  CompuServe, and GEnie.

Subscribers will get front-end software for use on Apple II and
Macintosh computers which provides them with on-screen graphic
icons and pull-down menus as they navigate the system.  The
one year subscription charge is $35 which includes two hours of
free use, a subscription to a monthly magazine, and the software.
Connect charges will run a reasonable $6 per hour at night and
$15 per hour during the day.

"Our objective is to have the user stick a disk in the drive, turn
on the computer and go -- it should be as easy as turning on a
television set," remarked Tom Morgan of Quantum at the news
conference announcing the service at AppleFest in Boston.

Apple promises to have the Apple IIe, IIc, and IIGS version of the
software available "this summer" and the Macintosh version will
be ready "later this year."

This AppleLink is a separate system from the AppleLink available
to dealers and developers since 1985.  That network has attracted
some 17,000 subscribers.  Quantum currently runs a network for
Commodore computer users, called QuantumLink,  which reportedly
logs some 250,000 hours of usage each month.
[***][5/24/88][***]
ACTIVISION CHANGES NAME, RELOCATES, BUYS FIRM, ANNOUNCES PROFIT
MENLO PARK, Ca. (NB) -- Activision is now Mediagenic, is now in
Menlo Park, not Mountain View, has restructured the corporation,
owns Atlanta-based ZSoft Corporation, and has reported its fourth
consecutive quarter of profits.

The big changes come as the firm has made an astounding comeback
from 4 years of red ink.  Some 300 Bay ARea technology executives
and industry luminaries recently named Activision "Comeback Company
of the Year" in a COMPUTER CURRENTS poll. "There is a new competitive,
entrepreneurial spirit in our company that is guiding us into new
markets and strategic acquisitions -- it's an aggressive drive that
has fueled our return to profitability," boasts Bruce Davis, president
of Mediagenic.

The choice of the new corporate name reflects a desire to project
the firm's expanding product line into a variety of electronic media
formats -- HyperCard, video, PC-based software, and CD-ROM/CD-I.
Mediagenic means "suitable for creation, reproduction or transformation
in various types of media," according to a company spokeswoman.

Mediagenic has been divided into an entertainment and a presentation
tools division.  Company headquarters have been relocated to Menlo
Park, just a stone's throw from the old location.  And Mediagenic
has reached an agreement to buy ZSoft Corporation, a publisher of
graphics software for IBM compatibles, for an undisclosed sum.

In its most recent quarter, Mediagenic reports a 70% increase in sales
over this time last year, bringing earnings to $874,000 on net income
of $3.6 million.
[***][5/24/88][***]
IT'S A GRAPHICS STANDARD, IT'S AN INTERFACE, IT'S RENDERMAN
SAN RAFAEL, Ca. (NB) -- Pixar has published an interface proposal
which it promises will make "photorealism a standard capability" on
desktop computers.  It's called RenderMan and it defines a
methodology for 3-D modeling systems to attach visual attributes
to geometric data in such a way as to simulate material, texture,
reflectivity, and gloss.  Pixar wants the industry to adopt the
technology, and it's off to a good start.  19 firms, including
Autodesk, Sun Microsystems, NeXT, MIPS, Apollo, Prime, and Walt
Disney,  have endorsed RenderMan and have committed to using the
interface in their products.  None, however, chose the
introduction to announce specific products based on RenderMan.

"Just as PostScript fueled desktop publishing, the 3-D scene-
description interface will fuel photorealistic imaging," claimed
Tom Porter, director of advanced technology at Pixar.

The specification for the RenderMan interface is available now from
Pixar and may be obtained free of charge by contacting the company.
Pixar is largely owned by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

CONTACT:  PIXAR, 415/258-8100
[***][5/24/88][***]
HEWLETT PACKARD SUED FOR $120 MILLION FOR ANTI-TRUST
LOS ANGELES (NB) -- Hewlett Packard has been slapped with a $120 million
suit charging it with unfair practices to monopolize the market
for microwave test equipment.  Morgan Hill, Ca.-based Wiltron
Co. says HP has been conducting a campaign of lies designed to
discourage potential customers from buying its own microwave vector
network analyzers, which sell for a healthy $125,000 each.  The
suit claims HP already controls half the world market for microwave
testing devices and 90% of the vector network analyzer market.

Specifically, Wiltron points to a "SWAT" campaign, an acronym which
stands for "Stop Wiltron Advances Today."  Wiltron officers say
with this campaign HP teams spread false information about Wiltron
products and urged Wiltron customers to cancel contracts.

HP calls the suit "without merit" and an attempt "to obscure
the real issues" between the two companies.  And what are those
real issues?  "In HP's view, the real issue....is intellectual
property and patent infringement by Wiltron. HP believes Wiltron has
infringed seven patents granted to HP for microwave test
equipment...."  This one looks nasty.
[***][5/24/88][***]
COMPUTERLAND SHUNS PS/2 CLONES
OAKLAND, Ca. (NB) -- Don't expect to find an IBM PS/2 clone at your
local ComputerLand store.  The giant chain has reportedly decided
not to stock the copycat machines for fear of IBM's legal fist.  The
news follows IBM's announcement that clonemakers face stiff licensing
fees and IBM's renewed threats of lawsuits against those without licenses.

ComputerLand's decision means the nation's largest retail computer
chain will only stock the real thing -- IBM's PS/2s.  The decision
could be yet another blow to those expecting to reap profits from
clone sales.

Only Tandy and Dell have announced PS/2 clones for delivery this
summer.  But others are known to have clones in development.
[***][5/24/88][***]
CHIP SHORTAGE FORCES PRICES UP
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Ca. (NB) -- Sun Microsystems is the latest to announce
price hikes that reflect increasing charges for DRAM chips.  Sun says
it has upped many add-on memory products by 39% to 50%.  An extra
megabit of memory for a Sun 4-200 computer, for instance, is now $780
from $563.  "We've held off as long as we reasonably can," reports
Greg Xenakis of Sun.

Apple Computer hiked an add-on memory kit for the SE by 40% earlier
this month; Wyse has hiked computer prices by 6% to account for its
higher chip costs.

And the worst isn't over yet.  The rumor mill has it that DRAM chip
prices will rise another 30% by July.

Meanwhile, COMPUTERWORLD reports that Apple has indefinitely delayed
a more powerful Macintosh SE due to the DRAM chip shortage.  The
weekly's sources say the introduction of an SE with more memory and
a 40 megabyte hard disk was planned for earlier this year, but
has been shelved until further notice.  An Apple spokeswoman had
no comment on the report.

ATARI EARNINGS DOWN BUT STILL MAKES FORTUNE 500 LIST
SUNNYVALE, Ca. (NB) -- Atari reports a 63% drop in earnings for its most
recent quarter and points the finger at its recently-acquired Federated
Group stores.  Despite the loss, Atari, for the first time, has
ranked as one of the 500 largest corporations, making slot #484
based on 1987 sales.

The balance sheet shows Atari is making money in its computer division,
and revenues are $169.2 million compared to $65.1 this time last
year.  Atari's statement from its president Jack Tramiel foresees
an imminent end to the Federated losses and that the chain "is now
approaching the break-even point."

Contact: Neil Harris, ATARI CORPORATION, 408-745-2160
[***][5/24/88][***]
IN BRIEF --

ALDUS, Seattle, Wa., is shipping version 3.0 of PageMaker for the PC.
The new version includes support for long documents, enhanced
graphic capabilities, and user interface improvements, including
built-in templates.

BRODERBUND, San Rafael, Ca., will market the CD-ROM version of "The
Whole Earth Catalog" for the Macintosh.  Called The Electronic Whole
Earth Catalog, the program will be released in the fall.  Designed to
be used with HyperCard, the disk does not have an announced price.

HEWLETT PACKARD, Palo Alto, Ca., reports a 24% increase in net revenue
and a 25% increase in net earnings for the second quarter.  Orders
were up 20 percent over the same period last year.  Net revenue totalled
more than $2.49 billion, net earnings were $202 million.

SCIENTIFIC MICRO SYSTEMS, Mountain View, Ca., is entertaining offers
for its SuperMac Technology division.  Among those said to be putting
money on the table is Western Digital and Scientific Micro's former
director of marketing, Andy Robson.

YARC Systems, Thousand Oaks, Ca., is shipping a board which dramatically
increases the processing speed of a Macintosh II.  The McCRAY board,
$4,295, enables the Mac II to run at a whopping 50 MHz and to process
17 million instructions per second.
[***][5/24/88][***]
ACIUS EARMARKS DISKETTE PROFITS FOR RADIO-CONTROLLED TOY CARS
CUPERTINO, Ca. (NB) -- Acius, former Apple software guru Guy Kawasaki's
new company, has earmarked money made from a database disk for an unusual
company cause -- radio controlled cars for the staff.  Money made from
sales of a user group database, bundled with MiniFans, a 4th Dimension
database application which tracks sales leads, customers, and contacts,
will be used to buy those little radio-controlled cars for Acius staff
members.  The User Group Database contains 1,000 user groups and both
it and MiniFans, available as shareware from CompuServe or AppleLink,
come with an asking price of $20.00.  Or a diskette containing both
the application and the database can be had by writing the company and
endorsing the check to the "ACIUS RC Car Fund."

The racing of radio controlled cars has been an off-hours diversion
at Acius since April 1987, we're told.


[***][5/24/88][***]
TANDY TO PHASE OUT MODEL 200
FORT WORTH, TX (NB) -- Tandy Corp. will phase out its Model 200
laptop and will run out of inventories by the end of the year.
Ed Juge of Tandy told reporters that the Model 200 enjoyed its
greatest market penetration among journalists (NEWSBYTES SOUTH
travels with the predecessor model, the 100). The 100's follow-on,
the 3-pound Model 102, with its 8 line by 40 character screen,
will still be sold, as will the Model 1400, a $1,500 DOS-compatible
weighing over 10 pounds, which Tandy also classifies as a laptop.
(Tandy has a big lap.)

CONTACT: Ed Juge, TANDY, [phone]
[***][5/24/88][***]
PARADYNE WINS ITS FIRST FEDERAL CONTRACT OF THE FERRI ERA
LARGO, FL (NB) -- Paradyne Corp., a data communications equipment
supplier which has been suffering since a 1981 dispute with the
federal government over its contract work, has won a new federal
contract. It's small, $11.3 million, and it only covers service
on the FAA's Paradyne equipment, and Congressman Bill Young had
to get involved personally to bring it home, but it's a contract
and the people at Largo are happy. Happiest may be Chairman Paul
J. Ferri, who took over when the company was flat on its back. He
was re-elected to a new 3-year term as a director, and 85% of
shares outstanding supported Ferri's proposals.
[***][5/24/88][***]
WHO SAYS PROGRAMMERS DON'T HAVE MORE FUN?
CHICAGO (NB) -- The annual "Jobs Rated Almanac" is out, which
rates jobs by salary, stress, work environment, outlook,
security, and physical demands. The more money, the less stress,
the better the work environment and outlook, and the lower the
physical demands and risk of being replaced by a machine, this
almanac figures, the better the job. Based on these criteria, the
best thing to be these days is an actuary. But computer systems
analysts (a fancy word for programmers) rank #7 on the list, and
the other professions in the top 10, like astronomers, engineers,
and mathematicians, are all heavy computer users.

What's the worst job to have? Migrant farmworker, followed by
fisherman, seaman, roofer, construction worker, cowboy, dairy
farmer, nurse's aid, garbageman, or taxi driver.
[***][5/24/88][***]
INFORMIX CLAIMS IT'S GOT BIT-MAPPED GRAPHICS UNDER XENIX/386
LENAXA, KA (NB) -- Informix Software, formerly Innovative
Software, said its new Smart Software System is the first
application to offer bit-mapped graphics under Xenix/386, and
that it's not vapor, but a working product. AT&T announced a few
months ago it would work with Sun to develop "Open Look," giving
bit maps to Unix systems, but that work is far from finished.
Informix claims that, with SunRiver's fiber optics terminals, its
new product can run faster than DOS applications. We'll see.

If that weren't enough, Informix sent NEWSBYTES a release stating
that its Smart Spreadsheet, again under Unix, outperformed Lotus
1-2-3, making changes in spreadsheets.
[***][5/24/88][***]
NOVELL INTRODUCES NEW HARDWARE
OREM, UT (NB) -- Novell found its major Comdex/Spring
announcements lost in the hubbub and the boredom. The company,
which bought a number of hardware firms in the last few years and
got indigestion, announced a new AT-type terminal with a built-in
Ethernet adapter, along with a diskless workstation. Also added
were a file server based on the 80386 chip with a 155 megabyte
capacity and a power supply that can handle even bigger drives. A
SCSI hard disk controller for the PS/2 was also announced, and
the company announced its Advanced Netware, Version 2.11 will
ship May 27. Support for OS/2 will be available in the fourth
quarter.
[***][5/24/88][***]
PECAN GOLDEN CHIPS

COMPAQ, Houston, told analysts it gained market share during the
first quarter and outsold IBM's PS/2 machines with the Micro
Channel 2.5-1. They also claimed 58% of the Fortune 1000 has
Compaq on their approved vendor lists, and showed a Storyboard
survey showing it had 26% of computer dealer revenues. The
company also elected George E.R. "Gus" Kinnear II to its Board of
Directors. Kinnear  runs the Washington office of Grumman
Corporation, a major defense contractor.

DELL COMPUTER, Austin, announced it will go public with 3.5
million shares priced at $8-9.50 per share.

SOUTHWESTERN BELL, St. Louis, is closing its "Silver Pages"
directory for older Americans. A SW Bell official told "The Wall
Street Journal" that the only outfit with its arms around the
gray-hair market is the American Association of Retired Persons
(AARP).
[***][5/24/88][***]
PECAN CHIPS

DCA, Alpharetta, is preparing to release a LAN Manager with
explicit support for OS/2 based on its 10-Net product. Expect the
complete package by early 1989.

HONEYWELL BULL, MINNEAPOLIS, MN, endorsed the Open Software
Foundation thrown together by IBM and others to challenge AT&T's
handling of Unix standards.

INTECOM, Allen, TX, a Wang subsidiary, announced a marketing
agreement with U.S. West for its Integrated Business Exchange
switches.

UNISYS, Detroit, signed its partnership with the Australian
government, which will pump half a billion dollars Down Under
over the next 7 years.

VMX, Dallas, showed full AT&T System 75-85 integration at an
Anaheim trade show. The standard connections for services like
call answering, message waiting, and transfers were demanded last
year by a users' group headed by The Coca-Cola Co.

[***][5/24/88][***]
BIX' PARENT DUMPS ON PRODIGY -- SURPRISED?  *OPINION*
Prodigy, the IBM-Sears joint-venture in videotex which goes into
business next month in Atlanta, Hartford, CT and San Francisco,
was called "not a lot new" by Christopher Elwell of the
Information Industry Bulletin. He told this to McGraw-Hill News'
David Rubinger, (McGraw-Hill owns Bix) who immediately went out
and wrote a big story on it. Elwell compared Prodigy to Knight-
Ridder's Viewtron, unfavorably, noting that it will take a
special diskette for PC owners to get the service. The story was
quickly picked up as holy writ by Online Today, a publication of
CompuServe.

NEWSBYTES does not know how Prodigy will fare. We do recall,
however, that Viewtron sent graphics over the phone line and
required users to buy $700 terminals to get it. And we know that
Prodigy will keep its graphics on users' disks, depending on the
PC user base to take its low prices and complete shop-at-home
services. NEWSBYTES, however, will suspend judgment on their
chances, believing that competition is good and using the news
pages to dump on the competition is sour grapes, unfair, and just
silly.




[***][5/24/88][***]
MICROSOFT EXCITED ABOUT 586, SCORNS APPLE LAWSUIT
TORONTO (NB) -- While most of us are wondering what the Intel
80386 chip means to us, Bill Gates and his associates at
Microsoft are two generations ahead, working with Intel Corp. on
the design of the 80586 microprocessor.  "We're already finished
our work on the 486," Gates told a conference in Toronto May 19,
"and we're already starting our work on the 586."  Gates said
each of the next two generations of Intel chips -- the 486 and
586 -- will roughly triple the performance of its predecessor.
He said his team is very excited about the 586.  One of its
capabilities will be "multiple dispatch" -- the ability to
execute more than one instruction at a time.

Gates spoke to the Electronic Desktop Publishing Association and
to the Canadian Information Processing Society, both of which
were holding conferences at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.
At the CIPS luncheon, he touched on the look-and-feel copyright
issue, saying Microsoft is "on the side of the good guys."  In
line with previous statements by his company, Gates said Apple
Computer Inc.'s lawsuit over the look and feel of Windows 2.0 is
without merit.

Gates also said that MS-DOS will continue to outsell OS/2 for the
next two to four years, and that Microsoft plans yearly
enhancements to the older operating system, including a menu-and-
icon shell similar to Windows and OS/2's Presentation Manager.
[***][5/24/88][***]
STUDIES SAY CANADIAN BUSINESS KEEN ON PCS, CONFUSED ABOUT LANS
TORONTO (NB) -- Personal computers are used in nearly 90 per cent
of large Canadian businesses, 70 per cent of medium-sized ones
and only about 40 per cent of small businesses, according to a
recent study by International Data Corp. Canada.  IDC also found,
in a separate survey, that businesses are confused about local-
area networks.  Conflicting vendor claims and the absence of
clear standards are the big problems, IDC said.

IDC found that more than one third of businesses surveyed could
not identify the vendor that had supplied their network interface
cards.  Among those that knew whose cards they had, IBM and
Novell were the most popular vendors.

In the personal computing survey, the researchers found that the
IBM PC-XT was more widely used than its smaller and larger
siblings, the PC and PC-AT.  More than 40 per cent of large sites
surveyed are already using PS/2 machines, and fewer than one
fifth of the large organizations that responded to IDC's survey
were using IBM-compatible PCs.  In smaller organizations, the
PS/2 was slightly less popular and compatibles more so.

CONTACT: INTERNATIONAL DATA CORP. CANADA, 7 King St. E.,
         Toronto, ON M5C 1A2, [phone]

[***][5/24/88][***]
BEDFORD SOFTWARE ANNOUNCES PUBLIC OFFERING
BURNABY, B.C. (NB) -- Bedford Software Ltd. has filed a prospectus for
a public stock offering with securities regulators in three Canadian
provinces.  The offering is underwritten by the Montreal securities
firm of Levesque Beaubien, and the prospectus has been filed in
British Columbia, Ontario and Nova Scotia.  Kristin Keyes, Bedford's
director of marketing, said the size and price of the offering have
not yet been determined.  Proceeds will be used to finance new product
development.

Bedford was founded in 1983.  It introduced its first product, Bedford
Integrated Accounting, for MS-DOS machines in January of 1985.  A
Macintosh counterpart called Simply Accounting was introduced late
last year.  In fiscal 1987, Bedford earned C$153,000 on revenues of
C$1.98 million.  In the first nine months of fiscal 1988 (to January
31) the company made a C$455,000 profit on revenues of C$.3.5 million.


CONTACT: BEDFORD SOFTWARE LTD., Suite 201, 4180 Lougheed Highway
         Burnaby, B.C. V5C 6A7, [phone]
[***][5/24/88][***]
COMMODORE SHOWS COLOR SEPARATION SYSTEM ON AMIGA 2000
TORONTO (NB) -- Commodore Business Machines Ltd. showed a color
separation system running on its Amiga 2000 personal computer at
the Comgraph '88 show here May 17-19.  Commodore says the
Professional Color module of its Professional Page desktop
publishing software is the first full-featured program to create
and output type and photography as black and white halftones,
mechanically separated film or screened, four-color process
separations.

CONTACT: Stan Pagonis, COMMODORE BUSINESS MACHINES LTD.,
         3470 Pharmacy Ave., Agincourt, Ont. M1W 3G3,
         [phone], Fax: [phone]
[***][5/24/88][***]
HIGH SPEED VOICE/DATA NETWORK GOES COAST-TO-COAST
TORONTO (NB) -- Canada Systems Group Ltd., Toronto-based service
bureau, says its ValuNet high-speed communications network will
reach from coast to coast by the end of this year.  ValuNet
carries both voice and data communications using a variety of
links provided by common carriers.  It currently connects
Montreal with Toronto and three other Ontario cities:
Mississauga, Hamilton and London.  By September, CSG says there
will be links to Halifax on the east coast, to Vancouver on the
west, and to Ottawa, Winnipeg, Calgary and Edmonton.

CONTACT: CANADA SYSTEMS GROUP, 393 University Ave.,
         Toronto, Ont. M5G 2H9, [phone]
[***][5/24/88][***]
WATCOM UNVEILS STUDENT WORKBENCH
WATERLOO, Ont. (NB) -- The Watcom Group Inc. has introduced
Student Workbench, a line of personal computer software developed
in collaboration with the University of Waterloo.  Watcom is one
of the earliest spinoffs from the university, which is known for
its work in computer software.  Student Workbench includes word
processing, spreadsheet, database, accounting and graphics
applications and is designed to be easy to use, according to
Watcom.  The software runs on IBM PCs and compatibles.

CONTACT: THE WATCOM GROUP INC., [phone]
[***][5/24/88][***]
FINANCIAL BITS
-- BCE MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS INC., Montreal, will not buy MDI
Mobile Data International Inc. of Richmond, B.C.  BCE and
Motorola Inc., Schaumburg, Ill., agreed to pursue joint ventures
in the mobile radio business, THE GLOBE AND MAIL reports, and BCE
will withdraw from bidding for MDI, leaving the field clear for a
buyout by Motorola.

-- MICRO TEMPUS INC., Montreal, lost C$495,000 on revenues of
C$2.6 million in the six months ended March 31.  In the same
period a year earlier, Micro Tempus lost C$262,000 on revenues of
C$2 million.  The company develops software for micro-to-
mainframe communications.

-- MITEL CORP., Kanata, Ont., lost C$32.6 million in the year
ended March 25, on revenues of C$419.2 million.  Last fiscal
year, Mitel lost C$39.9 million on revenues of C$454.4 million.
[***][5/24/88][***]
BITS, EH?
-- ATI TECHNOLOGIES INC., Scarborough, Ont., has introduced the
Model 2400etc internal modem, a 2,400-bps unit for IBM and
compatible PCs that sells for $239 (U.S.) or C$349.  ATI says
that with data compression techniques the modem can transfer data
as fast as 4,800 bits per second.  It fits in a standard half-
slot.

-- ALLAN CRAWFORD ASSOCIATES LTD., Mississauga, Ont., has signed
a Value-Added Reseller agreement with Apple Canada Inc. to sell
networking, graphics and other workstation products

-- ANTARES ELECTRONICS INC., Ottawa, has been named the exclusive
Canadian distributor for fiber optic multiuser network systems
from SunRiver Corp., Jackson, Miss.

-- CNCP TELECOMMUNICATIONS INC., Toronto, has received approval
to offer facsimile transmission services in the provinces of
Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia.  The Canadian Radio-
television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), which has
jurisdiction over telecommunications in the three provinces,
approved the move.  Key to getting the approval was CNCP's
promise to use technology which would prevent the fax lines being
used for voice communications.

-- COMMODORE BUSINESS MACHINES LTD., Toronto, has (finally) given
NEWSBYTES CANADA a price on the PC 60/40, the company's 80386-
based personal computer.  Price for a standard configuration with
40-megabyte, 40-millisecond access time hard disk is C$8,995.
Commodore isn't selling the 60/40 in the U.S. at present.

-- ENCORE COMPUTER CORP., Marlborough, Mass., has opened a
Canadian subsidiary.  Encore Computer Ltd., based in Mississauga,
Ont., will sell and support Encore's parallel processing systems
and peripherals.  Kevin Cornell has been appointed general
manager.

-- GEMINI GROUP AUTOMATED DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS INC., the online
reservations joint venture Canada's two largest airlines launched
last year, has filed its defence against an anti-trust complaint.
Air Canada and Canadian Airlines International argued that
without the merger only Air Canada's system would have survived
anyway.  The federal Bureau of Competition Policy was due to
respond to the defence by May 20, and the case is then expected
to proceed to hearings before the federal competition tribunal.

-- XEROX CANADA INC., Toronto, has signed up Manta Computer
Technologies Inc. of Ottawa to manage the accreditation of
training centres for its Ventura desktop publishing software
across Canada.  Manta develops course materials and training
sessions for PC software.
[***][5/24/88][***]
QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
"I'm pretty good at multiplication, but I never look at the stock
price so I don't know what number to multiply by."

-- Bill Gates, Microsoft chairman and world's youngest
billionaire, when asked his current net worth at a Toronto press
conference.


[***][5/24/88][***]
JAPAN'S MAJOR COMPUTER EXHIBITION OPENS
TOKYO (NB) -- The theme of this year's 66th Business Show was "The
Intelligent Office - More Effective and Comfortable Working Space"
International Trade Fair Grounds, Harumi, Tokyo on May 18.
Over 400,000 visitors were expected, both domestic and foreign,
during the 4-day exhibition.  Some 295 companies displayed their latest
products and occupied 29,600 square meters of floor space --
the largest scale in the show's history.

The biggest crowds were attracted to IBM's exhibit where the OS/2
operating system was being promoted.  "IBM OS/2 Theater" showed
the development and features of the Personal System/55 Model 5550-S/T,
Model 5570-T, and OS/2 Extended Version.  Observers remarked
that the depth of development information was unusual for IBM.

IBM's New Products Corner was flooded with its 32-bit MPU-based
Personal System/55 Model 5550-S/T, and Model 5570-T.  IBM's
laptop computer, the PS/55 Model 5535, was exhibited at its Laptop
Plaza, demonstrating that it can run Japanese word processing
software Ichitaro and Lotus 1-2-3.

Meanwhile NEC was exhibiting and demonstrating its defacto standard
Japanese PCs, the PC-9800 and the PC-8800 series.  Japan's PC giant
played host to third party product displays as well.

Among products on display were the PC-9801LV21, a high-powered
laptop which can run about 6,000 programs.  It has a backlit
liquid crystal display.  PC-98XL2 is the most powerful PC in
the PC-9800 series, having a 32-bit 80386 MPU.  The high speed and
dazzling graphics drew a lot of spectators.

Sony exhibited its UNIX-based engineering workstation the NEWS,
occupying most of its exhibition space.  The newly-created NEWS
1800 series have two 68030 MPUs.
[***][5/24/88][***]
AX PERSONAL COMPUTERS APPEAR FROM MITSUBISHI, SHARP, AND SANYO
TOKYO (NB) -- Japan's AX group, which includes  Mitsubishi, Sharp,
and Sanyo, has finally announced its original IBM-PC/AT-compatible
personal computers.  The AX group, which aims to challenge IBM Japan,
displayed the machines at the Business Show '88.

Mitsubishi has released a laptop personal computer named Maxy,
which is compatible with PC/AT and has a Japanese language
feature.  It has a 80286 microprocessing unit (MPU) and
can be attached with a 80287 coprocessor.  Maxy's screen is an
8 shade liquid crystal display.  The Maxy machine on display
ran under Microsoft Windows and the Japanese word processing software
Ichitaro.  The prices are 448,000 yen or $3,600 with two 3.5-inch
floppy disk drives and 588,000 yen or $4,700 with a 3.5-inch floppy
drive and a 3.5-inch hard disk drive.

Sharp announced it will release a 32-bit AX personal computer, the AX
386, this July.  The AX 386 Series has a graphic system
processor and a high resolution display capable of real-time
simulation.  They are attached with a 16-megahertz 80386 and 2
megabytes of main memory.  The prices are 860,000 yen or $6,900 with
two 3.5-inch floppy drives and 1.1 million yen or $8,800 with a 3.5-inch
floppy and a 3.5-inch hard drive.

Sanyo will release 6 models of its AX personal computers.
MBC-I17JLT is a 16-bit laptop version with a backlit LC
display.  The model has two versions: one with two
3.5-inch FDDs and another with 3.5-inch FDD and a 3.5-inch HDD.
MBC-17WJH40 is a 16-bit desktop version.  Both MBC-I17JLT and
MBC-17WJH40 have an 80286 MPU.  The 32-bit MBC-18J Series is
attached with an 80386 MPU.    The prices are between 400,000
yen and 700,000 yen ($3,200 - $5,600).

The AX personal computers were originally developed because IBM
Japan's PS55 computers were not compatible with the PC/AT and
hence could not run software designed for that machine.  However,
since the announcement of AX machine development, IBM has released
PS55 systems that ARE compatible with PC/ATs.  Consequently the
competition is now based on pricing, and not exclusivity.
[***][5/24/88][***]
<< SUSHI BYTES >>

HITACHI DEMANDS ROYALTY PAYMENTS FROM SAMSUNG -- Hitachi is
asking for royalty payments for memory chips from Korean
semiconductor company SamSung.  Hitachi asserts that the
license for its 64- and 256-kilobit dynamic RAM (DRAM) chips
has been violated in the DRAM chips being shipped to the U.S.
market.  SamSung has reportedly admitted fault and may have
to pay the requested royalties.

MULTI LINGUAL WORD PROCESSING SOFTWARE FOR PC 9800 SERIES --
Kodensya, Tokyo, has announced multi lingual word processing
software, "The Core Techno Mate," for NEC's PC 9800 series, and
shipments are slated to begin July 15.  This software is an upgraded
version of its English word processor "The Techno Mate."

REMARKABLE SHORTAGE OF 16-BIT PCs -- There is remarkable shortage
of 16-bit personal computers in Japan.  The worldwide shortage of
semiconductors has triggered an imbalance between consumer demand
and market supplies.  For instance, Japan's defacto standard PC,
the PC-9801 series, is currently shipping in quantities of over 50,000
units per a month, the largest number since its release.  However,
PC shops are still short of the machine.

STEEL MAKER TIES UP WITH TOMCAT COMPUTER -- Major Japanese integrated
steel maker Kawasaki Steel has tied up with software venture Tomcat
Computer, and its large scale integrated circuit (LSI) will be
released this month as semiconductor sets.  This chip is easy to
connect into your personal computer and will allow it to use
software for the 16-bit personal computers of IBM, NEC and Toshiba.



[***][5/24/88][***]
P9 CHIP IN UPCOMING SYSTEM?         *** EXCLUSIVE ***
PARIS, FRANCE (NB) -- The P9 chip, the 80386 software - 80286
hardware compatible chip -- is soon to be available in a
French system, according to NEWSBYTES sources. This would
be the first use of such a chip, which Intel has steadily refused
to say would be a REAL processor. The French system,
which will run at 16MHz, and have a 1.2MB floppy disk, a
40MB hard disk, and VGA card, is designed to use the P9 (otherwise
known as the 80388 chip) or the 80286/16 chip as supplied
by Advanced Micro Devices, in case the 80388 is not available.
Stay tuned for more details on this breaking story.
[***][5/24/88][***]
TOSHIBA AIMS TO BE FIRST WITH COLOR LCD LAPTOP *** EXCLUSIVE ***
NEUSS, GERMANY (NB) -- Toshiba, one of the world's largest laptop
manufacturers, has told NEWSBYTES "that currently, color LCDs are
just too expensive for the general market. Seeing the way the
market is moving however, we feel that we will be able to conquer
the various costs involved in the creation of color LCDs and hope
to offer a color, battery powered laptop in the foreseeable future."

Meanwhile, Toshiba's response to the onslaught of various other
laptop systems, which have cut Toshiba's portable market share
to 25% (IDC estimate), came from a company spokesman: "Toshiba aims to
regain its dominance in the laptop market with technological innovations
and quick market turn-around times."

In a related story, the T1000 modem problem still awaits resolution
with Toshiba, which is apparently trying its best to produce European
phone line-proof modems for the popular laptop system.  The modem
problem, reported earlier by NEWSBYTES EUROPE, is especially affecting
journalists, with whom the model is popular.  They bypassed
the Tandy 200 and Tandy 100 in favor of the T1000.
[***][5/24/88][***]
FIRST 32532 BOARD ZOOMS AWAY
MUNICH, WEST GERMANY (NB) -- Heurikon, the single board company
that has been specialising in 68XXX boards, entered the higher
end microprocessor field by announcing the HK32/V532 board which
boasts the 32532 National chip. The board, which also contains 4
to 16MB of RAM, EPROM, floating point chip, DMA controllers and an
SCSI port, uses a 30MHz clock for operations. At this speed, the
system is supposed to offer what Karl Matzke, a company spokesman,
called, "ultra performance."

The board is ideally suited to high-end UNIX and real time
applications. Set to rival 68030 and 80386/20 based systems by a
factor of two to three, the 32532 opens up opportunities for
lower cost systems. The board will be shown at the European UNIX
show, to be held in London from 7th till 9th 1988.  The show
will be covered by NEWSBYTES EUROPE.
[***][5/24/88][***]
HUNTER SYSTEMS ANNOUNCES 68020 PC-DOS SOFTWARE EMULATOR
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM (NB) -- Hunter Systems Europe has
announced that XDOS, a cross operating environment available for
the Sun 3/160 system, offers PC-DOS software execution with full
compatibility. The program, which breaks the barrier of 32MB, has
halved the execution time of typical AT programs. It is based on a
proprietary binary compiler technology, which is basically a
meta-language similar to the Pascal P-code available on CP/M
systems a few years ago. Since the product uses a common code,
other environments will be developed to offer XDOS on similar high-
performance chips such as the 32532 and the AMD29000 RISC chip.
[***][5/24/88][***]
DOWN UNDER PRODUCT INVADES EUROPE
OOSTERZELE, BELGIUM (NB) -- A Tasmanian product, Protel-PCB, is
set to compete head-to-head with Smartwork and Daisy Systems'
Artwork and PCB routers in Europe. Together with the Protel-
Schematic, Protel-router and Protel-toolbox, these product offer
a completely automatic PCB production system from the design to
the production stage. All of these products run on the PC/XT/AT
series of products and need a free slot for a key-card (pity!).
Able to operate on either a CGA or on an EGA card (advantage over
Smartwork) they can work on boards with up to 6 signal layers,
plus power and ground planes, a total of eight layers. The
products cost around $1000 to $2000 each.
[***][5/24/88][***]
APOLLO, BULL, DEC, HP, IBM, NIXDORF AND SIEMENS TEAM-UP FOR OSF
PARIS, FRANCE (NB) -- Apollo, Bull, Digital Equipment, HP, IBM,
Nixdorf and Siemens have teamed up to create the  Open Software
Foundation. OSF, a worldwide organization will be responsible for
the creation of standards for user-friendly software. Such an
environment will include user interfaces, advance system
extensions, and a new operating system based upon the X/OPEN or
POSIX UNIX-like systems. POSIX, which is almost UNIX, is accepted
by the European Community as the future operating system. "The
creation of a standard software environment is one thing needed
which the informatics industry can benefit from today," said John
L. Doyle, president of the OSF. OSF is basically an R&D
center financed by the members.

OSF's creation principles include the development of standards
for the industry, active support for technological breakthroughs,
neutral decision support, and independent hardware design to support
software research. Technologies envisaged include networking
computing systems (Apollo), multiprocessor architecture (Bull),
X Window system (DEC), National language support (HP), AIX (IBM) to
be used as the base for the upcoming UNIX-like system, and OSI
technology (Nixdorf).
[***][5/24/88][***]
DUTCH COMPANY INTRODUCES TELETEXT CARD FOR PCs
PAPENDRECHT, THE NETHERLANDS (NB) -- Micro Technology has
announced a teletext card for the IBM PC and compatible products
which offers connection via a TV tuner to the teletext (or
VIEWDATA) type information transmitted through most of the TV
channels in Europe (currently transmitted in Germany, Holland,
Belgium, UK, France, Italy, Super and Sky). Database search and
retrieval capability is included as well as routines for user
programming. The TD400 teletext card costs Fl. 1495 (or about
$700).
[***][5/24/88][***]
OLIVETTI ANNOUNCES NEW PCS
IVREA, ITALY (NB) -- Olivetti announced new systems which include
ESDI disk controllers  and high memory capacities. The M378/C and
the M380/XPI are 386-based systems running at 20MHz with VGA, EGA
and CGA emulation graphics boards. The M290 is an AT-compatible
system sporting a 12MHz 286 processor and 2MB to 4MB on the
motherboard with 1MB RAM chips. Olivetti chose to use 1MB RAM
chips to avoid the shortfall in 256K RAM chips currently
affecting the industry. The laptop has been enhanced and called
the M15 Plus. This system which still uses the 4.&& MHz 80C88 chip
also has a 20MB hard disk.

Missing from the Olivetti announcements was MCA (Micro Channel
Architecture) clones which were scheduled for the end of 1988.
Peripherals included the 3.5 -inch optical disk drive, CD550, which
offers 550MB of data storage, and a new ESDI hard disk controller
which offers 1:1 interleaving (for faster data transfer) and
Olicache software.
[***][5/24/88][***]
NEW OPERATING SYSTEM JOINS INCOMPATIBILITY ROAD
PARIS, FRANCE (NB) -- MULTIMOS, a multiuser, multitasking
operating system that runs on various processors from the 8088 to
the 68020, offers processor-independent operation and database
support. Similar to the MUMPS operating system (used in
hospitals, hence the name), Multimos, is designed to offer
hardware independency in system purchasing. Supported by the OS
is X.25 protocol for packet switching usage and twinax connection to
the 3780. Languages offered include Microbol, a COBOL like
language, Xlatin which means Lists, Statistics and spreadsheets
and other languages. Jean Claude Louis, export manager said, "This
product is designed to offer device independence into niches not
served by OS/2 or DOS today."

[***][5/24/88][***]
PROBLEMS IN MS WINDOWS DESIGN
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (NB) -- "We have tried to develop software
under the Microsoft Windows environments and we have found that we
need at least 5 to 15 times more time than developing software
for normal character-based environments," said Jan Lefere,
president of Informa Europe, a company specialising in software
for the legal professions. "The problem seems to be that
Microsoft just does not have people in Europe who know Windows
inside out, and can help serious developers such as ourselves,"
said Gust van Hembeek, support manager for Informa. "As it is, we
have scrapped all our efforts of the last few months and
decided to concentrate on Windows for data-based environments
with a corresponding delay in new product shipments. We feel
that MS Windows is an environment best suited for larger software
development companies and not to smaller developers, such as
ourselves," concluded Jan Lefere.

When NEWSBYTES-EUROPE contacted Microsoft in the US, we were
told all support for Belgium comes from the Microsoft center in
Paris which should be able to answer all the appropriate questions.
We are still waiting for some of the answers...

[***][5/24/88][***]
Z80 CHIP STILL REIGNS (ALMOST) SUPREME
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM (NB) -- Although the 80X86 chips have
taken the limelight from the Z80 processor, which run the CP/M
de facto standard operating system, new products are added almost
continuously to the list of Z80 supported products. Latest from
Zilog is the 84C90 serial/parallel/counter/timer chip which
together with the 84C20 parallel I/O chip and the 84C80 general
logic chip cuts down the chip count of a typical system from 17
to 6 components. In addition, the Z180 offers faster execution
and more integration, similar to the 80188 and 80186 from Intel.
Currently, the Z80 has more tools, more software and more
debugging tools than any processor in the microcomputing market.
[***][5/24/88][***]
EUROBITS...

     CCA EUROPE introduced bar code scanners and wands. These
systems, which cost between $80 and $200 include RS-232 decoders
and PC slot cards....

     ...MAXCOM, MAXTOR'S Belgian distributor, announced an erasable
optical disk system capable of holding up to 1GB of formatted
data and a seek time of 30ms...

     ...SPEA PARTNER, a CLIPPER-based CPU board that is plugged
into an AT bus, offers 9MIPS performance and UNIX V. Priced at
less than half the price of 386-based systems, the card opens the
AT bus to the needs of higher performance integrators...

     ...INTEL has announced chips to be used in a PS/2 clones.
These chips include the 82306 local channel processor, the 82307
DMA processor, the 82308 bus controller, the 82309 address
controller and the 82706 Video Graphics Array...


EUROPEAN COMMUNITY FINDS MODEMS A SLIPPERY BUSINESS
BRUSSELS (NB) -- Bureaucracy at work in the European
Community's offices here in Brussels was shown last week when the
EC supplied various internal organizations with phone lines and
access nodes to its various computer databases. However, many of
these connections could not be used because MODEMS were missing.
You see, modems are the monopoly of telephone authorities around
Europe and thus cannot be gotten easily. An embarrassed European
official said that when the decision was made to offer such lines,
modems were thought to be available easily. However, the
situation is due to improve with last month's decision concerning
the abolition of monopoly in telecommunications market.



[***][5/24/88][***]
THE UNIX REBELLION
NEW YORK (NB) -- Led by giants International Business Machines
Corp.and Digital Equipment Corp., the world's two largest
computer companies, seven major computer makers have launched a
rebellion against American Telephone & Telegraph's recent
initiative to revitalize the Unix operating system. Calling
themselves the Open Software Foundation, and dedicating $90
million over the next three years to the cause, IBM, DEC,
Hewlett-Packard Co., Apollo Computer, Siemens AG and Nixdorf
Computer AG of West Germany, and France's Groupe Bull have joined
together to build their own flavor of Unix, one that would not be
under AT&T control.

AT&T recently launched a strategic alliance with Sun
Microsystems, Xerox, and Motorola for development of a new Unix,
complete with a graphical interface, to run on a new generation
of reduced instruction set chip (RISC) computers. According to
several industry sources, that action really troubled H-P and
Apollo, who then worked to bring, as one source put it, the
"gorillas in the closet," IBM and DEC, into the Unix rebellion.
The foundation of the challenge to AT&T Unix will be AIX, IBM's
version of Unix.

AT&T reacted scornfully to the new Unix challenge. Robert Kavner,
new chairman of AT&T's data systems group, said, "this new group
has no track record. We question the process whereby several
competitors -- most of whom have only developed closed systems --
are now going to develop an open operating system." Kavner
implied that IBM and DEC are not really interested in openness,
but in retarding real Unix, thus keeping their own, non-
compatible, operating systems alive. "We may not see an end
product out of this group in my lifetime," said Gordon Bridge,
AT&T vice president, national sales, who spent 22 years at Big
Blue before joining AT&T.

The new foundation hopes to attract additional members, with a
$25,000 entry fee for profit-making companies, and $5,000 for
non-profits. But one major player won't be joining. Frederick
Wang of Wang Laboratories issued a statement after the
announcement, saying: "We regard this development as nothing
more than an argument among vendors, which will only serve to
confuse business and government customers as well as software
developers all over the world. The polarized posturing of these
companies cannot help the real headway that was being made
towards openness in operating systems standards. As such, this is
a great pity and a disregard of customer's real interests."

Seeing the disarray in the ranks of the vendor community, Boston
attorney Peter Marx says he will try to organize a national
coalition of business users, to give users greater clout in the
development of new programs and standards. Marx already is
counsel for a group of Data General Corp. users, counsel for the
Washington-based Information Industry Association, and chairman
of the New England Computer Law Forum. "There is no voice now for
the users," Marx said. "There are some years of chaos ahead until
this issue of a standard operating systems is settled. It's time
the users should be united."
[***][5/24/88][***]
IBM PUTS THE BITE ON CLONESTERS
NEW YORK (NB) -- IBM says its wants companies to pay up on past
royalty fees before it will enter into new licensing agreements
for PS-2 compatibles. According to company spokesman Michael
Starks, Big Blue may also push for retroactive royalty payments
even if the clone maker has no plans for PS-2 clones. IBM wants
payments of one percent of sales on computer sold through last
April 1, and full payment by the end of the year. After that,
says IBM ominously, prices could rise. "To be consistent," says
Starks, "we are not going to enter into new patent licensing
agreements with companies that refuse to recognize their
liability to IBM for the use of IBM patents in their existing
products." Unaffected are Tandy and Compaq, which have cross-
licensing agreements with IBM. Whether the fact that IBM hasn't
dunned the clone makers for payments in the past will undercut
the current attempt to collect is unclear, according to computer
law specialists. "This one could be headed to court," one lawyer
told NEWSBYTES.
[***][5/24/88][***]
**************** REPORT FROM THE VIRAL WARD **********************

NEWSPAPER STRUCK WITH "BRAIN" VIRUS
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (NB) -- Reporters at the "Providence Journal-
Bulletin" newspaper got a frightening message as they were using
their computers: "Welcome to the Dungeon. Beware of this VIRUS.
Contact us for vaccination." Computer experts at the paper
located and killed the virus before it got onto the Atex
minicomputer system used in the newsroom or the mainframe in the
business office, but not before the virus destroyed and damaged
scores of PC disks. The newspaper said the virus was the "brain"
strain, created by two brothers who run a computer store in
Lahore, Pakistan. One of the brothers, identified as Amjad, told
the paper that he wrote the program to track his software,
fearing that people were pirating it. A brain virus recently was
discovered at Bowie State College in Maryland, where it destroyed
five student's disks. The newspaper's experts aren't sure
how long the virus was at the paper or how it got into
the systems. The virus can lay dormant for long periods.

EPA MACS ON THE MEND AFTER VIRAL ATTACK
WASHINGTON (NB) -- Apple Macintosh computers at the Environmental
Protection Agency are recovering following a viral attack,
according to "Government Computer News." EPA technicians used Virus
Rx, a free Apple program, to diagnose and vaccinate the
computers. Apple is promoting "safe computing," the digital
equivalent of "safe sex," as the ultimate answer to virus
attacks. This means backing up data files, write protecting
master disks, and not computing with strange programs. Perhaps we
can call those little write-protect tabs "compucondoms?"

In the meantime, congressional computer investigators say the
virus that infected Macs in the House of Representatives was the
"scores" virus. They say that the virus may have migrated to the
House Information System computers from computers at NASA. NASA,
in turn, picked up the virus at the Johnson Space Flight Center
in Houston, where government computers became infected by EDS
computers.
]
CONGRESS TO LEGISLATE ON COMPUTER VIRUSES
WASHINGTON (NB) -- Congress is considering legislation that would
require the Defense Department to report on what measures it is
taking to prevent viral infection of military computers. The
measure may be written into the Fiscal Year 1989 Defense
Authorization Bill. Herb Lin, the House Armed Services Committee
staffer working on the issue, told NEWSBYTES that the report
requirement is in the authorization bill that passed the House,
but is not in the Senate measure, which is still under
consideration. "We will probably work it out in [a House-Senate]
conference committee," Lin said.

*****************************************************************
[***][5/24/88][***]
PROTECTION FOR VDT WORKERS
HAUPPAUGE, N.Y. (NB) -- The Suffolk County legislature has passed
a law, believed to be the first in the U.S., to protect workers
in private businesses who stare at video screens all day. The
ordinance takes effect in November and covers all businesses with
20 or more VDTs, and employees who work more than 26 hours per
week in front of the screen. The law requires a 15-minute break
after three hours of work. It also sets standards for lighting
and for chairs, and mandates that employers pay 80 percent of the
cost of eye exams and glasses. The bill won approval by a 13-2
margin, following a three-hour public hearing. A business
organization, the Long Island Association, opposed the measure,
arguing that the cost would make them uncompetitive with
businesses located elsewhere.
[***][5/24/88][***]
GREENHOUSE-GLASNOST CONFERENCE ONLINE
WASHINGTON (NB) -- A dozen climate specialists from the U.S. and
a like number from the Soviet Union have established a
microcomputer bulletin board devoted to the subject of global
warming. Called the "Greenhouse-Glasnost" conference, the
bulletin board is expected to be in operation for a year, as
scientists share information about carbon dioxide buildup and the
so-called "greenhouse effect" which is expected to warm the earth
over the next several decades. The University Corporation for
Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., and the Institute of
Space Research in Moscow are sponsoring the conference. The PC
hosting the bulletin board is located at the World Resources
Institute in Washington.
[***][5/24/88][***]
BAR CODES COMING FOR COMPUTER SOFTWARE
WASHINGTON (NB) -- The Software Publishers Association, the
Washington trade group for microcomputer software publishers, is
calling on its members to use bar codes, also known as universal
product codes, on its software packaging. According to SPA
Executive Director Ken Wasch, the coding will make it easier to
trace sales and inventory. SPA will put together a data base of
all the codes to help in the tracking. Wasch said he hopes all
software products will be coded by the end of the year.
[***][5/24/88][***]
MIDI AIDS HANDICAPPED MUSICIAN
WASHINGTON (NB) -- The Musical Instrument Digital Interface
(MIDI) permits paralyzed singer-musician Teddy Pendergrass to
remain at the top of the music industry. Pendergrass, who lives
in Philadelphia, was injured in a car crash six years ago. MIDI
allows Pendergrass, who is bound to a wheelchair and has limited
use of his hands, to compose, arrange, and make sounds and "play
literally every instrument that would be included in a 100-piece
orchestra," he told a Senate subcommittee. "That allows me to
compete at the highest level. It erases the handicap."
Pendergrass was among several witnesses urging Congress to make
such technology more available to the handicapped.
[***][5/24/88][***]
TAPPING INTO THE ATOMIC CLOCK
GAITHERSBURG, MD. (NB) -- Compulsive about your computer clock?
Not happy unless your PC is accurate to .001 of a second? Is that
what's bothering you, Binky? Then the National Bureau of
Standards has just what you need. For $35, NBS will sell you a
5.25-inch DOS diskette which, together with a phone and modem,
will allow you to access the NBS atomic clock in Boulder, Colo.,
the official clock of the U.S. The Automated Computer Time
Service in Boulder can measure the time differential of your
telephone signal, and make the necessary compensation to get the
time just right.

CONTACT: NBS Office of Standard Reference Materials, b311
         Chemistry Bldg., NBS, Gaithersburg MD 20899. Mention
         that you want the "automated computer time service, RM
         8101." Call 301-975-2012.
[***][5/24/88][***]
SUN, LOTUS GROW LIKE TOPSY
BOSTON (NB) -- Sun Microsystems Inc. of Mountain View, Calif.,
and Lotus Development Corp. of Cambridge, Mass., are the fastest
growing companies in electronics, according to ELECTRONIC
BUSINESS magazine. Sun's sales soared 474.4 percent over the past
five years, the magazine said, while Lotus grew 369.2 percent
over the same period. The rankings only apply to publicly held
firms. Others in the top five: AST Research of Irvine, Calif.
(249.5 percent growth); Iomega of Roy, Utah (185.2 percent);
Mentor Graphics of Beaverton, Ore. (164.1 percent).
[***][5/24/88][***]
NEWS NIBBLES

PRIME COMPUTER of Natick, Mass., will drop 700 jobs as part of
the purchase of Computervision. The reduction will hit about five
percent of the company's workforce worldwide. Fewer than 700
employees will actually get walking papers, Prime said.

IBM has produced the first half-micron chips in its Federal
Systems facility in Manassas, Va., under the Defense Department's
Very High Speed Integrated Circuit program. The exceptionally
compact chips run faster because electricity has less distance to
travel.

Despite major computer problems, Connecticut has decided to keep
GENERAL INVESTMENT CORP. of Hunt Valley, Md., on the $40 million,
five-year contract for the state's lottery computing system.
General Instrument took over the contract May 8 from GTECH CORP.
of Providence, R.I. Major problem cropped up when the switch
was made, at one point requiring a 24-hour shutdown.

WANG LABORATORIES of Lowell, Mass., has established a separate
division to develop, make, and market its microcomputer products.
The division will be called Wang Microsystems. It will begin
operations in August.



[***][5/24/88][***]
CIX TEAMS UP WITH MERCURY
Surbiton, Surrey (NB) -- Cix, the Compulink Information eXchange,
is now available nationally throughout the UK, thanks to Mercury
5000, Mercury Communication's public data network.

Unlike BT's Packet Switch Stream, Mercury's public data network
operates at 2400/2400 baud full duplex, in addition the normal
lower speeds. Added to this, the company has bought 500 Tricom
modems to provide the dial-up ports to Mercury 5000. This allows
users of M5000 to access Cix using MNP level 5 error correction.

In plain English, this gives 85 per cent of the UK local call
access to Cix with close on 4,800 bps (bits per second) data
throughout (thanks to MNP's data compression system). Users of
non-UK data networks will also be able to access Cix using their
home country's data network.

If that sounds impressive, it is. NEWSBYTES UK can at last upload
and download files locally four times faster than via PSS, giving
a huge saving on our phone bill. Enough said.

CONTACT: COMPULINK INFORMATION EXCHANGE, Suite 2, The Sanctuary,
         Oakhill Grove, Surbiton, Surrey, KT6 6DU.
         Tel: [phone] (voice) 01-399-5252 (data)

         MERCURY COMMUNICATIONS - 01-528-2349
[***][5/24/88][***]
DACOM LAUNCHES QUADPLUS MODEM
Milton Keynes, UK (NB) -- Dacom, one of the quieter modem
manufacturers, has launched the Quadplus modem. The high-end
modem is capable of V21, V22, V22Bis and V23 speeds (that's 300
through to 2400 baud in plain English), and also supports MNP
level 5 error correction.

Dacom hasn't said what the modem's pricing is in its literature
(we only received the release at the weekend), but claims that
the modem "offers superior performance and a lower price than any
competitive product currently available."

CONTACT: DACOM SYSTEMS LIMITED, 26-27 Heathfield, Stacey Bushes,
         Milton Keynes, MK12 6HR.              Tel: [phone].
[***][5/24/88][***]
INTEGRATED NETWORKS UNVEILS MIX'N'MATCH PCS
Radley, Oxfordshire (NB) -- Integrated Networks has launched a
range of low-cost PCs, spanning the 8088, 80286 and 80386
environments. Unusually, the PCs are board compatible with each
other, meaning that buyers can mix and match the components.

Prices range on the Exzel 8088-based PC range from #799 for a
640K Ram, 30Mb hard disk plus single floppy drive machine with
green/amber 'mono' display, through to a CGA-compatible unit with
colour display at #1,199. CGA and EGA versions are available at
#989 and #1,089 respectively. A 60Mb hard disk option is
available for #100 extra.

The AT 80286-based models come with the same specifications as
the 8088-based machine, but with a 1.2Mb instead of 360K floppy
drive. Prices range from #1,099 (mono) through to #1,799 for a
CGA machine.

Pricing on the 80386-based PCs start at #2,199 for a mono
machine, through to #2,799 for a VGA-enabled PC. Specifications
are the same as the 80286 series, with a 60Mb hard disk option
available for an extra #125.

What makes the Exzel PCs unusual is Integrated Networks'
inclusion of six months on-site maintenance in these prices. On-
site maintenance can also be extended by 12 and 24 months for 11
and 18 per cent (respectively) of the hardware costs.

CONTACT: INTEGRATED NETWORKS, Thrupp Lane, Radley,
         Oxon OX14 3NQ.          Tel: [phone].
[***][5/24/88][***]
PROCOMM PLUS DEMO FOR UK USERS
Tonbridge, Kent (NB) -- When Datastorm Technologies unveiled
Procomm Plus, the commercial version of its shareware
communications package for the PC, it launched a demonstration
version of the package - Procomm Plus Test Drive - for potential
buyers to try out the package.

Trouble was, the test drive version is only licenced for
distribution in the US, despite the fact that non-US users can
easily download a copy from US bulletin boards and online
systems.

Shareware Marketing, which is currently liasing with Dortec, the
Danish software house, in the production of a viewdata-enabled
version of Procomm Plus, has now released a UK version of Procomm
Plus Test Drive. The package may be legally distributed (free of
charge) in the UK and Europe.

"The main limitation on the UK version is that we've restricted
the maximum modem data speed to 1200 baud," said Steve Townsley
of Shareware Marketing. "The package should give users a flavour
of what Procomm Plus is capable of," he added.

* Procomm Plus Test Drive (UK version - PROCOMMUK.ARC) is
  available for download on a number of BBSs, including the
  Shareware Marketing support BBS (0732-770539) and
  Cix (01-399-5252).

CONTACT: SHAREWARE MARKETING, 87 High Street, Tonbridge,
         Kent, TN9 1RX.                Tel: [phone].
[***][5/24/88][***]
TELECOM GOLD LAUNCHES PROFESSOR GOLD
London, UK (NB) -- Telecom Gold has launched Professor Gold, its
new PC-based training software for use by new users of the
Telecom Gold electronic mail service. The PC-based software will
be supplied free of charge to new subscribers to Telecom Gold.
Additional copies will be available for existing users of the
service at #6-00 each.

The software is based on the existing Telecom Gold Quick Guide to
Mail manual, and takes the user from basic principles through to
experienced user status in easy stages.

Sounds good. Electronic mail usage has always been regarded as a
mystery by the non-modem using world, so the Telecom Gold
training software will go a long way to explaining what
electronic mail is, and how it speeds up communication between
firms and individuals.

CONTACT: TELECOM GOLD, 60-68 St Thomas Street, London SE1 3QU.
         Tel: UK Internal - 0800-200-700
              International - 01-403-6777
[***][5/24/88][***]
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+ BRITBYTES - Bytes of news from around the UK... +
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+


The AMSTRAD COMPUTER SHOW is being held at London's Alexandra
Palace this Thursday to Saturday (26-28 May). Show details from
Database Exhibitions on 0625-878888.

COMMODORE AMIGA PRICE-CUTS are in the offing, according to
COMPUTER TRADE WEEKLY. The paper asserts that a price cut of #100
(from #499 to #399) on the A500 baby Amiga is in the offing.
Kristian Anderson, Commodore Europe's vice president, is quoted
as ruling out any immediate price cut, but the paper suggests a
price cut will take effect from 1 July, with some machines being
sold at the new price at the Commodore Computer Show (3/5 June).
NEWSBYTES UK will bring you reports from that show - with or
without price cuts on the baby Amiga.

IBM is expected to release Dos 3.4, the final edition of the
Microsoft operating system for PCs, on 2 June, according to
NEWSBYTES UK's sources. The new Dos will support extended memory
(EMS), as well as a maximum 512Mb hard disk capacity (compared to
the 30Mb maximum capacity supported under V3.3 and earlier).
Sources also suggest that IBM has bought the rights to V3.4 of
Dos from Microsoft.

MERCURY COMMUNICATIONS (01-528-200) has signed an agreement for
the world's longest optical fibre submarine cable. The 150Km
cable will link the UK and France and come into operation in
March 1989.

The ONE-TO-ONE electronic mail service (01-351-2468) has opened
up a gateway into the Infocheck online company checking system.
Access to the gateway costs #3-10 per minute (in addition to One-
to-One's normal online costs).

P&P SOFTWARE DISTRIBUTION (0706-217744) has set up Principle
Distribution, a new subsidiary firm to service the Apple dealer
network. The firm is operating from P&P's Northern HQ in
Rossendale, Lancashire.
[***][5/24/88][***]
AND FINALLY: PHONE JAMS IN WEST GERMANY

Moslems across the world celebrated the end of the Ramadam fast
last week. Moslems living in West Germany seem to be more
communicative than most, as they brought West Germany's international
telephone network to their knees when they made thousands of
calls to friends and family members in other European countries
early last week.

According to the Bild Zeitung newspaper, more than two million
Moslems live in West Germany, and calling abroad after Ramadam is
a quite normal occurrence.

"Moslems have lived frugally for four weeks, and now they want to
talk to friends and relatives all over the world. Our overseas
lines, which all run via Frankfurt and Dusseldorf, simply can't
cope," a spokesman for West Germany's state telephone
corporation is quoted as saying in the paper.