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/nb880621.261

Text File | 1991-08-18 | 71KB | 1,453 lines

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INTEL'S NEW 386 CHIPS PROMISE CHEAPER MICROS
SANTA CLARA, Ca. (NB) -- Intel has introduced a version of its popular
32-bit 80386 microprocessor which promises to make the newest
generation of power PCs less expensive.  The 80386SX is capable of running
all software designed for Intel's top of the line 80386, according to
Intel officials, but at half the speed.  In turn, the 386SX is cheaper --
30% cheaper than its more powerful older sibling.

Speculation has it that the 386SX will replace the 80286, the brains
of IBM's PC/AT.  While Intel will not confirm this, Product Manager
Bruce Schechter said the "80286 will move downstream" to become
the entry-level processor.  That swim is expected to begin
immediately.  Further, the 80386SX is not pin-compatible with the
80286, meaning older micros cannot be easily upgraded to the new
chip without the addition of other chips called programmable logic
chips.  However, like its predecessors, the 386SX is a processor
capable of running all 80286 micro-based applications.

Several "trendsetting" manufacturers are receiving the 386SX, says
Intel, but the company is not naming names.  Chances are good that
Compaq is one of them; Compaq is slated to introduce 3 new micros
on Monday, June 20, all based on the 386SX, and analysts say that IBM
is also most likely on the list.
[***][6/21/88][***]
ATARI SETTLES WITH MICRON IN CHIP DISPUTE
SUNNYVALE, Ca. (NB) -- Atari Corporation announced it has settled
a lawsuit out of court with Micron Technology of Boise, Idaho.  Atari
had sued Micron earlier this year, claiming the firm violated
contractual agreements when it failed to sell Atari memory chips
at an agreed-upon price.  Details of the settlement were not released.
Both sides say the dispute has been resolved to their mutual
satisfaction.
[***][6/21/88][***]
MACINTOSH TODAY GETS SCOOP ON NEW MACS
San Francisco, Ca. (NB) -- Apple will probably introduce four new
Macintoshes within the next year and a half, ranging from a laptop
to a high-end 68030-based machine called "The Tower," according
to MACINTOSH TODAY.  The trade weekly quotes sources as saying
there will be a laptop, a 3-slot Macintosh, a color SE, and a floor-
standing processor.  The Macintosh with 3 slots, code named Mac
1 1/2, will have a 68020 processor, as the Mac II does now, 2
megabytes of RAM, and an option for a half height drive or two
floppies.  The price, says M.T., is expected to be around $4,000.

Sony is said to be gearing up for production of color monitors for
a new SE that would begin shipment in the first quarter of 1990.

The Tower, a multiuser machine, is expected to be a floor-standing
model capable of supporting multitasking for up to 16 terminals.

The magazine says the major uncertainly in the rumored release
dates for these new Macintoshes will involve the current DRAM
shortage.  If it persists well into 1989, the release dates may be
put back further.
[***][6/21/88][***]
CLOSEVIEW CREATOR GETS BIG BOOST FROM APPLE
BERKELEY, Ca. (NB) -- When Apple announced operating system 6.0
for the Macintosh would include CloseView, a "control panel" device
that magnifies anything on screen by a factor of 2 to 16 times,
Berkeley System Design, maker of competing inLARGE, was besieged
with calls from reporters.  "Are you upset that Apple is cutting in
on your market?" they asked.  Berkeley System Design couldn't talk,
being under a nondisclosure agreement from Apple.  In truth,
they were delighted.

Berkeley developed CloseView for Apple, and will have its name
displayed on every copy for those seeking even more features
in a magnification program.  InLARGE ($95), specifically adds automatic
scanning for reading, crosshair option for easier cursor location,
image "stretching," full documentation in large print and on disk,
and magnification of only a portion of the screen with the option
to "blank out" the unmagnified areas.

The National Institute of Health gave Berkeley System Design a
grant to develop inLARGE two years ago and the challenge since
has been in informing those people who need it.  "We're delighted
(with the Apple deal)," says Wes Boyd, president of the company.
"The Mac is being transformed from the least accessible machine
on the market to the most accessible."
[***][6/21/88][***]
DISPLAY POSTSCRIPT NIXED BY GASSEE
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Ca. (NB) -- Adobe's Display Postscript will not be adopted for
use in Macintosh screen displays, so says Apple's Jean Louis Gassee.
The apparently final word has come down from Apple's top corporate
suite; Gassee has been quoted as saying, "We want to do something
different."  Apple had been chewing on the possibility of adopting
Display Postscript for future Macintoshes, but has finally decided to
stick with QuickerDraw.  Published reports indicate, however, that
the screen language is making headroads into plenty of other
computers, including new ones coming from Digital Equipment and
NeXT.  Analyst Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies has been pointing
to the new Open Systems alliance of IBM, Hewlett Packard, and Apollo,
as more parties interested in adopting the product.
[***][6/21/88][***]
DIGITAL'S DR-DOS TO COMPETE WITH MS-DOS
MONTEREY, Ca. (NB) -- Digital Research has come up with a DOS to rival
Microsoft's hugely successful operating system and plans to market
it aggressively, offering DR DOS at 50 to 60% less to the computer
industry on an OEM basis.  DRI says its new DOS is fully compatible
with MS DOS 3.3 and even offers several improvements, including the
ability to create files up to 512 megabytes in length, password
protection for all directories  and files, and online help files.

Could DRI be getting into legal hot water over this product?
Absolutely not, say DRI officers.  The operating system is derived from
Concurrent DOS, which in turn is derived from CP/M, and neither
product infringes upon Microsoft copyright.

DR DOS will be delivered already in ROM to computer manufacturers
who buy it.  Shipments are scheduled to begin this fall.

DRI hopes to eventually sell DR DOS to end-users.
[***][6/21/88][***]
ASHTON-TATE GOOF FORCES RECALL
TORRANCE, Ca. (NB) -- Ashton-Tate is recalling certain packages of
MultiMate Advantage II and dBASE III PLUS because of a software
bug.  Users will see an "insufficient memory" message when the program
is installed, resulting from a mislabeling of serial numbers during
the manufacturing process.  Some, but not all, of the packages
have the software bug.  Ashton-Tate has nevertheless decided to
replace all the problem diskettes in all the packages within the
identified serial number range.  If you suspect you may be among
those with affected packages, contact Ashton-Tate's customer
service representatives.

CONTACT:  ASHTON-TATE, 213/289-6300 (East Coast) or 213/329-9989
   on the West Coast
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NEW DBASE CLONE AIMED AT ASHTON-TATE'S MARKET
BELMONT, Ca. (NB) -- Move over Ashton-Tate, there's a new kid in town
aiming to have a piece of the dBASE action.  Under the terms of an agreement,
Oracle Corporation will market SQL-based versions of WordTech Systems'
dBASE╩III╩Plus-compatible products dBXL and Quicksilver, that
allow users of dBASE programs full access to Oracle SQL databases
simultaneously with dBASE╩files.  The result is the first migration
strategy for moving dBASE╩applications to the SQL standard.

The move is aimed at the market for Ashton-Tate's dBASE╩IV but both
products are not expected to hit the market until the fall.
[***][6/21/88][***]
IN BRIEF --

ACER TECHNOLOGIES, San Jose, Ca., the U.S. subsidiary of the Taiwan
computer maker, claims to be the first out with a
PS/2 clone.  The Acer 1030 is said to be fully compatible with the
PS/2 model 30, but is 20% faster.  The price is $1400 without monitor
and includes 640Kb of RAM and two floppy drives.  Acer promises to
have the first Micro Channel clones on the market soon.  See NEWSBYTES-
JAPAN this week.

ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES, Sunnyvale, Ca., plans a $100 million
research and development center here that will work in conjunction
with the industry-government sponsored Sematech consortium.
The new center is slated to open in the first quarter of 1990.

BELL TECHNOLOGIES, Fremont, Ca., is offering Unix V, Release 3 (the
interactive systems port) for the 80386.  The cost is $145 for the 2-user
version and $275 for unlimited users.  The $495 version comes with
all the printed documentation, and a package of goodies including a
C compiler.

BLUE CHIP ELECTRONICS, Chandler, Az., will market  an integrated
business program later this year for the 13 million home-based
businesses in the U.S.  Called TASK-force, the software provides
creation of estimates, invoices and checks, tracking of receivables
and payables, spreadsheet, report generator, word processor,
communications, and more.  The product will have a $159 suggested
retail price.

ICON REVIEW, Carmel, Ca., has laid off 20 employees, half the
company, in the latest effort to bring costs in line with revenues.
The firm, which does mail order software business, is looking for
more venture financing, but "is still in business," according to officer
Mark Randolph.

MAC TO THE FUTURE is the name of a show Tuesday, June 21 at the San
Francisco Hyatt Regency.  Sponsored by MACWEEK magazine and 800
Software, nearly two dozen vendors will demonstrate their products
and lectures will be offered by Guy /Kawasaki, Steve Beck, Ash Jain, and
others. Admission is free.  Hours:  11 am to 6 pm.

MICROSOFT, Redmond, Wa., is bundling QuickC and Microsoft Mouse
together in a special summer promotion.  During July and August, you
can buy two for the price of one for $199.

MICROSOFT is also shipping version 3.0 of Flight Simulator.  The first
major update of Flight Simulator in over four years supports full
640 x 350, 16-color EGA and VGA graphics, has more features and
different kinds of planes to fly, and can now be run on a hard disk,
which greatly speeds up execution.  For PCs or PS/2 machines, the
program's retail price is $50.

PAPERBACK SOFTWARE, Berkeley, Ca., is expected to release a new
version of VP Expert for the PC this week and promises a Macintosh
version by the first of August.

T/Maker, Mountain View, Ca., is said to be holding back the latest
release of WriteNow to coincide with a July introduction of Steve
Jobs' NeXT computer......


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GEORGIA POWER WON'T DEMAND INVOICES VIA MODEM *EXCLUSIVE*
ATLANTA (NB) -- Georgia Power officials say they were misquoted
and misunderstood in a recent "Network World" story about their
moves to encourage vendors to invoice them by computer. Billing
by computer, called "Electronic Data Interchange" (EDI), would
make things cheaper for Georgia Power, and they're encouraging
companies which sell Georgia Power equipment to switch to it,
says Mike Zarovsky, a technical support manager for the Atlanta-
based electric utility company. But no vendor will be dropped if
they don't switch to EDI.

"We're looking at trying to get 80% of our transactions
electronic by the middle of next year," Zarovsky told NEWSBYTES.
"We're talking about 300 vendors" out of 12,000 who would have to
switch for the company to meet that goal. So far, Zarovsky adds,
81 have switched. Vendors can create electronic forms any way
they like, he adds, even on a PC, and send it to Georgia Power's
IBM mainframe via modem. Software in the mainframe, and a
Honeywell DPS-6 minicomputer, takes care of the rest. The
transfer works under a standard called X.12.

"Amazingly, a lot of the 300 vendors we need don't use computers
at all," Zarovsky adds. "Some who do a lot of business with us
have only 4 or 5 employees, selling us transmission and
distribution supplies."

CONTACT: Mike Zarovsky, GEORGIA POWER, [phone]
[***][6/21/88][***]
PHOENIX PRIVATE EYE TRIES TO GROW VIA MODEM     *EXCLUSIVE*
PHOENIX, AZ (NB) -- Private investigator Jerry Cook moved back to
the Lower 48 from Alaska last year to learn about electronic
information sources and write a book on the subject. To further
that research, he created the Investigators' Online Network
(ION), a private network within Western Union's Easylink service
designed for private eyes.

So far, 150 PIs from all over the world, including Australia and
Canada, have paid Cook $150 per year for an electronic mailbox, a
telex number, and a once-weekly online communication. "I'm just
re-selling mailboxes," Cook told NEWSBYTES. Some of the members
have gone on to create their own newsletters using EasyLink's FYI
service.

Joining the ION system is relatively simple. Just send Cook your
money, a return address, and some information about yourself.
He'll spread your name around to the investigators on the
network, and if no one objects, you're in. "One guy objected to a
prospective member who worked for GTE until we explained to him
that he was the company's head of security," Cook told NEWSBYTES.

CONTACT: Jerry Cook, INVESTIGATORS' ONLINE NETWORK, [phone]
[***][6/21/88][***]
THE GOOD NEWS FROM THE CHIP SHORTAGE -- MICRON'S HEALTHY
BOISE, ID (NB) -- While you're pondering the wonders of hyper-
inflation in memory chip pricing, you should know that it's not
all bad news. After all the Japan-bashing of the last few years,
and thanks to the 1988 suffering of the American computer
industry, Micron Technologies is healthy again.

Micron, a Boise-based maker of memory chips and a prime mover
behind the 1986 chip-dumping accord which led to today's
shortages, announced record revenues and earnings for the quarter
ending June 2. For the 9 months ending on that date, the company
earned $54.7 million on sales of $187.1 million. The company
also completed a public offering of new stock, and construction
is underway on a third manufacturing line, including a 55,000
square-foot clean room. Micron executives are also building
themselves a nice new office building, a warehouse, and new
assembly and testing facilities. Finally, Atari and Micron
settled their legal disputes out-of-court. (SEE NEWSBYTES-WEST.)
[***][6/21/88][***]
SUPERCONDUCTOR UPDATE -- JAPANESE SCIENTISTS CREATE A FIBER
ALFRED, NY (NB) -- At a conference hosted by the New York State
College of Ceramics in Alfred, Sumio Sakka of Kyoto University
announced his team is seeking a patent on a flexible ceramic
superconducting fiber. Sakka said the cable could result in
electric carts that travel for a week on a single battery charge
and faster computers. The breakthrough involved a liquid and
gelatin compound which fabricated superconducting fibers without
the use of an oven. "We found a nice starting solution, which is
very viscuous, and from which we can draw fibers and the fibers
are superconductors," Sakka told "United Press International."
[***][6/21/88][***]
ETA SYSTEMS SAYS ITS SUPERCOMPUTER IS FASTEST, WILL RUN AT&T UNIX
PLAINSBORO, NJ (NB) -- An ETA-10 supercomputer from Control Data
at the John von Neumann National Computer Center at Plainsboro
has been clocked at 3 billion calculations per second, and the
company claimed the machine can go 3 times faster than that when
4 more processors are added for a total of 8. The center is run
by the Consortium for Scientific Computing, a joint-venture of 13
universities, formed to share the cost of making more powerful
supercomputers.

The announcement is important for Control Data, which has been
seeking to take over a market long-dominated by Cray Research,
America's most-profitable high-tech concern. The ETA computer is
the size of a briefcase, and uses Honeywell chips sitting in a
cryogenic liquid.

ETA spokesman Gil Goetz says the Von Neumann enhancements will
bring ETA's power up to the level of the new, unshipped Cray Y-MP
units. Beyond that, Goetz told NEWSBYTES, supercomputer market
battles will revolve around operating systems, which he claims
are ETA's trump card. Right now, he says, ETA's supercomputers
run EOS, a proprietary operating system. "But the plan is to
convert to Unix System V. We're announcing on June 22 in San
Francisco the availability of Unix System V for all our machines
starting in early October. There are 3 beta sites on it now.
Cray's Unicos operating system is just an adaptation of Unix
which will not pass the System V Validation Suite" meaning it
won't be certified as standard Unix by AT&T.

CONTACT: Gil Goetz, ETA SYSTEMS [phone]
[***][6/21/88][***]
COMPAQ ADDS ANOTHER BUILDING TO ITS HOUSTON COMPOUND
HOUSTON (NB) -- Compaq Computer has bought another 16 acres near
its Houston headquarters and is putting up new buildings there as
fast as it can. Site preparation for a product testing center at
the site is already underway, and workers have already moved into
a nearby office building, called Compaq Center West. The company,
founded just as the Texas oil boom was dying, has been able to
grow at will in a location which, before its founding, was a
Houston development hot-spot.

CONTACT: Lynn Parsons, COMPAQ, [phone]
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PECAN CHIPS

COMPAQ, Houston, plans to announce a faster (25 Mhz) 80388-based
PC and a second system based on the 80386SX chip from Intel this
week, according to our sources.

HAYES MICROCOMPUTER PRODUCTS, Norcross, announced a new 9,600
baud modem without error-correction. It's designed for use in
networks which have their own error-correction under the V.32
standard.

MARKETING GRAPHICS, Glen Allen, VA, began shipping Publisher's
PicturePak for WordPerfect 5.0, 565 pieces of clip-art which work
with WordPerfect's .WPG file format. Versions are also shipping
for InSet, a memory resident program for merging graphics with
Lotus 1-2-3, dBase III and other programs, and HiJaak, a
conversion program which works with still other file formats.


[***][6/21/88][***]
FRESH CONCERNS ABOUT VDT HAZARD
TORONTO (NB) -- Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the
computer room, a dispute has arisen between the Ontario provincial
government and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union over
possible low-level radiation hazards from computer displays.  The
union is concerned about a study released earlier this month in the
United States, which found a statistically significant difference in
the number of miscarriages between women using video display terminals
and those doing similar jobs without using the displays.

The union is accusing the Ontario government of failing to protect
employees against potential hazards.  The government, which has
refused to add shields to its terminals to protect employees from
radiation, argues that the terminals are safe and shielding is
therefore not needed.  Canadian studies in the past have never proved
a link between video display use and miscarriages or birth defects,
and even Robert De Matteo, the union's health and safety coordinator,
acknowledges there is no conclusive proof of VDT hazards.  But De
Matteo goes on to say that studies suggesting a hazard might exist
should be given the benefit of the doubt, citing past instances where
people have been harmed by hazards that were at first discounted and
later proved real.
[***][6/21/88][***]
NORTEL'S NEW SWITCH CALLED KEY PART OF ISDN OFFERING
TORONTO (NB) -- Northern Telecom Ltd. has launched its DPN-100 line of
packet data communications switches, calling the new products an
integral part of its plans for the Integrated Services Digital Network
(ISDN).  At a Toronto press conference, Northern unveiled five models
of the new line of switches, designed to let telecommunications
carriers or private customers handle from a few lines to more than
30,000 lines.  Among the early customers is Telecom Canada, the
national consortium of telephone companies that provides long-distance
telephone service across Canada and operates Datapac, the Canadian
packet-switched data communications network.

CONTACT: Northern Telecom Canada Ltd., Data Networks  Division,
         1431 Merivale Rd., P.O. Box 5080, Station F, Ottawa, Ont.
         K2C 3T1, [phone]
[***][6/21/88][***]
REWARD OFFERED FOR LEADS TO CHIP THIEVES
MONTREAL (NB) -- Insurance adjusters are offering a C$100,000 reward
for information leading to recovery of C$1 million to C$1.5 million
worth of 256K dynamic RAM chips stolen from Ogivar Inc., a Montreal PC
manufacturer, or to apprehension of the thieves.  The chips were
stolen from an Ogivar warehouse in late March.  Montreal police are
working on the case, and a newspaper advertisement placed by the Ville
Marie Adjustment Bureau Inc. urges anyone having information on the
theft to contact Sgt.-Det. Yvan Pilon at [phone], or Lt.-Det.
Donald Cote at [phone].  The reward offer is valid until July
15.
[***][6/21/88][***]
RESEARCHER MODELING AUTO INDUSTRY ON CRAY
TORONTO (NB) -- University of Toronto geography professor Carl Amrhein
is using the university's Cray supercomputer to create the first
microsimulation model of the automobile industry in Ontario.  He hopes
the model will aid in improved socio-economic forecasting.

Current models aggregate the statistics for industrial segments.
Amrhein believes their predictive ability is limited because they
depend on a small number of economic variables.  A micro-simulation
model, on the other hand, uses thousand of variables, all of which
interact.
[***][6/21/88][***]
BIGGEST-EVER PRIME NUMBER CLAIMED IN HALIFAX
HALIFAX (NB) -- Marc-Andre Lariviere, a 25-year-old teacher at the
Canadian Forces fleet school here, believes he has found the largest
prime number yet discovered, using an algorithm of his own design and
his personal computer.

The number is two to the power of 700,027 minus one, reports the
Halifax CHRONICLE-HERALD.  The largest prime number previously
discovered is two to the power of 216,091 minus 1, according to the
Guinness Book of World Records -- and it took a Cray supercomputer to
figure that one out.  The Guinness Book people are no in the process
of authenticating Lariviere's claim to the new record.
[***][6/21/88][***]
BITS, EH?
-- HARTCO ENTERPRISES INC., Anjou, Que., made a profit of C$702,000 in
the three months ended April 30, up from C$295,000 in the same period
a year earlier.  Revenue rose from C$20.5 million to C$30.6 million.
Harto is a franchiser of MicroAge computer stores as well as running
other retail operations.

INTERNATIONAL EPITEK INC., Kanata, Ont., lost C$116,000 in the six
months ended April 30, on revenues of C$2.14 million. That compares to
a loss of C$573,000 on revenues of C$2.11 million in the same period
last year.  International Epitek makes hybrid microcircuits.

-- CANADIAN SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS INC., Toronto, wants to provide
banking services by satellite.  The company, which transmits radio and
television signals to remote communities in the Canadian north, has
acquired rights to sell very-small-aperture (VSAT) satellite dishes
from Satellite Technology Management Inc., a California company.  The
first five have been sold to Co-operators Data Services Ltd. of
Mississauga, a computer service bureau serving trust companies and
credit unions.
[***][6/21/88][***]
AND FINALLY...
Your NEWSBYTES CANADA correspondent has always enjoyed reading those
little items in the front of TIME magazine, where the publisher talks
about "how we got that story" and other shoptalk.  This week, a few
words of that sort seem justified here.  On Tuesday, the Compaq
Deskpro on which NEWSBYTES CANADA is normally written went to a local
discount computer store to have a new hard disk installed.  The price
was right, but after two days or trying, the service technician called
to say he was sorry, but because the Compaq was "not a true IBM
compatible" and (Honest!) he couldn't get the hard disk to work with it.
Your correspondent, concluding it might be wiser to buy the disk from
a Compaq dealer who knew how to install it, picked up the machine, its
creaky 10-megabyte hard disk reinstalled.  On the way home with the
computer in the trunk, a corner taken a little too quickly apparently
gave the monitor a jolt.  The system refused to power up as long as
the monitor was connected.  So on Friday morning, off went the entire
system to the ComputerLand service department.  They say it may be a
week before it comes back.  With an IBM PS/2 review unit, a borrowed
modem and considerable time installing software, this rather harried
writer hopes to be able to meet 5,000 words worth of deadlines next
week.  This week's NEWSBYTES CANADA, meanwhile, has been written on a
Tandy Model 100 -- the only computer left in the place with a modem.
Now that it's done, your correspondent is going to go out and get
drunk.  Aren't computers wonderful?


[***][6/21/88][***]
NTT TO EXPORT TECHNOLOGY TO KOREA
TOKYO (NB) -- Japan's telecom giant NTT has signed an agreement to
share its technological secrets with Korea's Samsung.  Details of
the agreement have yet to be decided, and a great deal is at
stake, given that NTT is the Japanese superpower equivalent to AT&T
in the U.S.

Two areas expected to highlight the exchange are the fields of
telecommunications and semiconductors.    For instance,
NTT developed the world's first 16-megabit dynamic RAM
last year.  Samsung, meanwhile, is making a bundle in the fields
of telecommunications and semiconductors, currently producing
7 million 256K DRAM chips per month.  Samsung, however, lacks the
research and development muscle of Japan, Europe, and the U.S.,
making it imperative for the firm to seek technological alliances.

CONTACT: NTT, 1-1-6 Uchisaiwai-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100
[***][6/21/88][***]
NEC TO SUPPLY MORE PCs, INCLUDING LOW-PRICED 32-BIT PC
TOKYO (NB) -- Every computer maker is affected by the DRAM shortage
and is cutting back on shipments of PCs, except, surprisingly, NEC.
The company has announced that it will ship more personal computers
this summer than it has in the past in order to catch up with
consumer demand.

The company has redesigned its top-seller in the PC-9801 VX which now
has 1 megabit of dynamic RAM (1M DRAM).  Sales started last month.
NEC expects to ship 30,000 per month in June (NEC claims the total
shipment of all PC-9801s to date is 50,000).

NEC claims to have orders for 30,000 VX model 21, and promises delivery
of the units within one month.

Meanwhile, NEC will be the first to release a low-priced 32-bit
personal computer with the new microprocessing unit from Intel this
year, reports the NIKKEI newspaper.  The new MPU, dubbed 80386SX (see
NB-WEST), runs MS-DOS, OS/2, and UNIX, and can use all the programs
written for 32-bit 80386 and those for 16-bit MPUs.  The machine
is estimated to be priced at 600,000 yen or $4,800.

CONTACT: NEC, 1-4-28 Mita, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108
[***][6/21/88][***]
TOSHIBA TO RELEASE LAPTOP PC WITH 100 MEGABYTE HDD
TOKYO (NB) -- Toshiba has developed a high-end model of its
laptop personal computer, the J3100 SGT-101-Model.  Toshiba promises to
release it this September.  The SGT-101-Model comes with a
staggering 100 megabyte hard disk drive (100M HDD).  The machine
runs on Japanese MS-DOS. English MS-DOS and Japanese
UNIX-based operating systems are optional for the machine.  Also,
Toshiba will release MS-OS/2 for the machine within the year.
At the same time, Toshiba will release Japanese UNIX for the
SGT-101-Model, which is based on the UNIX System Version 3.0 of AT&T.

The SGT-101-Model runs on the 20MHz 32-bit microprocessing unit
80386, which enables the machine to process data 20 to 30 percent
faster than the original J3100.

The SGT-101-Model will be priced at 1.38 million yen or $11,000.  The
basic price of the Japanese UNIX for the machine will be 146,000
yen or $1,200.

CONTACT: Toshiba, Toshiba Bldg., 1-1-1 Shibaura, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105
[***][6/21/88][***]
PS/2 COMPATIBLE MACHINE DUE FROM TAIWAN?
TOKYO (NB) -- According to the NIKKEI newspaper, Acer, one of
Taiwan's largest personal computer makers, will release high-end IBM PS/2
compatible machines as early as next spring.  Acer will release
32-bit Model 80 and 16-bit Model 50-compatible machines, both of
which are said to have IBM's  Micro Channel features capable of high-
speed data processing.   Acer is currently negotiating with IBM
in order to obtain a license to sell the units.

To start, Acer will release an English version of PS/2-compatible
machines for Europe and U.S.  After that, the company will release
PS/2-compatible machines which can process two languages, such as
English and Japanese, or English and Chinese, aiming to enter
Japanese and Taiwanese markets.

Acer will be the first company to release PS/2-compatible machines
in the newly industrialized countries (NICS) of Asia.  This
movement might lure Japanese firms which have been sitting on the
fence to release their PS/2 compatibles as well.
[***][6/21/88][***]
FUJITSU TO PRODUCE 1M DRAM IN U.S.
TOKYO (NB) -- Fujitsu has announced its U.S. subsidiary, Fujitsu
Microelectronics Inc., San Diego, California, will start production
of 1 megabit dynamic RAM (1M DRAM) chips in August.  The company is
aiming to produce 200 to 300 thousand 1M DRAMs per month;  Fujitsu
is currently producing 1-2 million 256 kilobit DRAMs monthly in
the San Diego factory.

Fujitsu has become the fourth company to produce 1M DRAMs in the U.S,
following Toshiba, Hitachi, and Mitsubishi.  Also, the company is
planning to produce 1M DRAMs in its subsidiary, Fujitsu
Microelectronics Asia, at the end of the year.

CONTACT: Fujitsu, 1-6-1 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-Ku, Tokyo 100
[***][6/21/88][***]
JAPANESE SPEAKING PC FROM AI VENTURE
TOKYO (NB) -- Tokyo-based artificial intelligence (AI) software
venture KnowledgeWell has released its new speech synthesis
system called Ryu-Cho (means "fluent" in Japanese).

The system operation has three steps; 1. Input Japanese sentences
with kanji and kana characters from file or keyboard.  2. Convert
to a speech file with a dictionary which contains 100,000
words.  3. Translate in spoken Japanese within a few seconds.

The system can be used on a personal computer which running
MS-DOS and C language.

The price of the system is between 1,280,000 and 1,480,000 yen
or $10,240 and 11,840.

CONTACT: KnowledgeWell Corp., 1-22-8 Koyamadai, Shinagawa-Ku,Tokyo
[***][6/21/88][***]
<< SUSHI BYTES >>

TOSHIBA TO PRODUCE A SAMPLE OF TRON ARCHITECTURE WITHIN THIS YEAR
 -- Toshiba promises to produce a prototype of the TRON architecture
by year's end.  TRON is a new-concept operating system, which
Ken Sakamura, professor of Tokyo University, has been advocating.

LOW-PRICED SUPER WORKSTATION -- Sumitomo Electric Industries,
Tokyo, has developed three low-priced models of super workstations
the S series in cooperation with Mips Computer Systems of the U.S.
The S series have roughly the same high-speed processing
capability as that of large computers.  Their central processing
unit (CPU) is Mips' 32-bit RISC processor, the R2000.  The model
with a bit-mapped display is priced at 2.95 million yen or
$23,000.

HITACHI TO INCREASE 1M DRAM PRODUCTION IN MALAYSIA -- Hitachi has
announced its subsidiary, Hitachi Semiconductor Malaysia, will
increase monthly production of 1 megabit dynamic RAM (1M DRAM) to
500,000 in October, and to one million next April to deal with the
worldwide shortage of the chips.  Hitachi's 1M DRAM production in
Malaysia (Penang) will be the largest of its subsidiaries.
Hitachi Semiconductor Malaysia has been switching
production from 64 kilobit DRAM to 1M DRAM since last year.

120 BILLION YEN IN SOFTWARE SOLD, SAYS WHITE PAPER -- Sales
of package software in 1987 reached over 120 billion yen or
$960 million, according to the Personal Computer Association
White Paper 1988.  Sales of software for 16-bit personal
computers increased by 40% to 67.9 billion yen or $543 million,
while software for 8-bit PCs showed no increase over the
previous year.

FLIGHT RESERVATION WITH LAPTOP PC -- United Airlines of the U.S.
has started Dial Up Apollo service which allows laptop computers
to connect with its computer reservation system (CRS).  Travel
agents, armed with a handy terminal,  can visit their clients and make
flight or hotel reservations on the spot. Network Data Service and
International Value Added Network (VAN) are used to reduce
the communication cost.  Toshiba's J-3100SL has been selected for
the terminal.  The monthly lease price of the laptop PC and software
is 10,000 - 12,000 yen or $80 - $100, while communication cost
will be about 5,000 - 25,000 yen or $40 - $200.

SHARP STARTS 1M DRAM PRODUCTION -- Sharp has announced  that its
Fukuyama factory has started 1 megabit dynamic RAM (1M DRAM)
production and aims to increase monthly production to 500,000
within this year, and to 1 million when the expansion of the factory
is completed.  Also, the company is aiming to ship samples of 4M DRAM
at the end of next year.


[***][6/21/88][***]
YOU READ IT HERE FIRST/WEEK OF JUNE 21, 1988
Copyright 1988/Written by W. A. Yacco, Exclusive to NEWSBYTES

  -- In this week's installment
         WALSOFT STILL SOFT--RINEHART RESOLVES TO STIFFEN
         dDAY FAIR FEATURES IV...signs indicate product may ship July 31
         POWER GROUPS SHOW SOUTHLAND THEIR STUFF
         MULTIPLE PDL's MARK NEW MANNESMANN LASER
         TWINS AWARDED DRAFT CHOICE IN TRADE
         BOEING PLOTS INVISIBLE GRAPH...best graphics program disappears

WALSOFT STILL SOFT--RINEHART RESOLVES TO STIFFEN
WOODLAND HILLS, Ca (NB) --Martin Rinehart's news continues to be bleak.
Walsoft sales are down 40% and the work force is down from 11 to 7.
The top three officers are no longer drawing salary.  One lesson
that hasn't been lost on Walsoft is the need to diversify its
product line away from a single platform.  Rinehart confirmed that
future developments will include versions of Walsoft's tools for
Eagle and R:BASE among others.  It could be worse: Fox and Geller
have joined Rosenkrantz and Gildenstern.  According to Rinehart, the
bigger a vendor is into dBASE add-ins, the more likely it is to
follow them.

dDAY FAIR FEATURES IV
 . . . Rinehart was in California for the second annual dDAY
presented by the Valley West dBASE User's Group (VWDBUG).  Other
speakers on his panel, "The Future: Is Standardization the Answer,"
included Adam Green, Paul Heiser, David Kalman, Wayne Ratliff, and
Tom Rettig.  Quite impressive, absolutely professional and one of
the very few places in the state you were likely to find three-piece
suits on a hot Saturday afternoon.  Besides the corporate suits
there were plenty of consultant and developer types to round out the
attendees.  They each plunked down $25 to hear the speakers and
visit the fair's booths: Ashton-Tate, Foxbase, Migent, Nantucket,
SBT Corporation, Silverware, Tom Rettig Associates, Walsoft,
WordTech Systems and several smaller vendors.

The suits were there in force (although Force III still hasn't been
seen anywhere) because A-T was displaying the latest beta of dBASE
IV.  There were some minor glitches in the greekware but several
sources have been telling me that the product has made some
unexpected breakthroughs.  Those sources alleged that very, very
recent reports from within the Torrance citadel indicated a
potential turnaround from the dismal expectations just announced by
Ed Esber.  Senior dBASE Product Specialist Tim Lebel, a contributor
to the design specs for IV, confirmed this after his presentation.
According to Lebel, "at this point, dBASE IV seems more likely to
ship on or near its original July 31st date" than the September time
frame cited only a few weeks ago.  If A-T optimism follows through,
the company could regain some of the aura that's been lacking
lately.


POWER GROUPS SHOW SOUTHLAND THEIR STUFF
 . . . VWDBUG is a user's group but it might as well be called a
giver's group.  Not only is the dDAY on par with PC Expo, COMDEX and
other quality trade shows (though on a much smaller scale) but the
nonprofit group contributes its proceeds to scholarships and other
worthy causes.

Several other groups in the area compare well as professional
organizations.  The UCLA group's speakers have included John Dvorak
and Pasadena recently hosted Bill Gates before an excess-capacity
crowd of 1200.  These groups share one common denominator: spark
plug presidents who motivate a small core of hard workers.  If not
for Marv Mallon (VWDBUG), Steve Bass (Pasadena IBM User Group) and
Richard Katz (UCLA Personal Computer Users Group), these groups
could easily join those mired in the exchange of public-domain
software and demonstrations of batch files.


MULTIPLE PDL's MARK NEW MANNESMANN LASER
KENT, Wa. (NB) --Mannesmann Tally is nearly ready to ship its new version
of the MT910 laser printer.  The Universal Publishing System
includes cloned support for Postscript and Imagen's DDL in addition
to Hewlett Packard's Laser Jet Plus (PCL) emulation.  One of the
first laser entries sporting a Postscript copy, Mannesmann's UPS is
expected to ship with 2MB of memory and a selection of soft fonts.
Up to 35 on-line fonts will be supported simultaneously.  With a
virtual foundry on tap, any pub that has to wait for fonts to be
downloaded will probably make readers dizzy.


TWINS AWARDED DRAFT CHOICE IN TRADE
LOS GATOS, Ca. (NB) --The folks at Award Software are about to make life
easier for the owners of Siamese systems.  A major source of
potential incompatibility for the twin buyer is the BIOS (Basic
Input/Output System) that comes with their copy.  New products
sometimes agree with a clone BIOS like a cat with a hair ball.
Until now, the only upgrade recourse has been through the system's
vendor--making the user too dependent for the likes of many.
Sometimes those very vendors sell systems with BIOS chips a year or
more out of date.  But that may be about to change.  Our sources
inside Award tell us that the company is meeting with potential
resellers.  Expect whomever drafted to begin trading in Award
upgrades directly with the end user in the near future.


BOEING PLOTS INVISIBLE GRAPH
SANTA MONICA, Ca. (NB) --The best graphic program in memory won't even be
in contention for Editor's Choice this year when "PC Magazine" does
its graphics software roundup.  Why?  It seems that Boeing Graph is
becoming unavailable.  Some say it's because there's no market for
the package's sophistication.  Our sources say it's because Boeing
is getting out of the software business.

There's good news for users who don't get one the last copies before
existing inventory is exhausted.  The rights to the package are
reverting to the original developers, Kai Krause and Martin Schmitt
up in the hills of Santa Monica (the same guys who wrote a
so-new-you-haven't-heard-about-it version of a famous Ivy League
graphics package for the Mac.

Sooner or later, there will be another PC product with the same
functions.  My guess is there will be plenty of added power as well.
Major competitors have been working on knock offs and these guys
don't need to stand still while the shots are fired.  They've
certainly got plenty in their bag of reserve tricks.  When I first
saw the program that eventually became Boeing Graph back in 1985 it
already had animation.

There are other signs at the 3-D offices.  One hangs on the wall and
our sources tell us that it is very significant.  Apparently those
midnight sessions before the monitors have produced some
revolutionary vector-graphics algorithms which support plots of
three-dimensional objects.  Too bad there isn't a Nobel for graphics
software.

      ---W.A. YACCO is grateful for your tips and comments. Send them
to IP1039 here on The Source, or call on him personally via MCI Mail
by writing to THE INPUTER.



[***][6/21/88][***]
DOS 3.4 DELAY DUE TO APPLE-MICROSOFT SUIT?   * EXCLUSIVE **
PARIS, FRANCE (NB) -- Rumors are rampant here that IBM's continuing
failure to announce the latest version of DOS, DOS 3.4, is due to
concern about the Apple/Microsoft "look and feel" lawsuit. Our
sources in France advise us that DOS 3.4 has not been announced
for fear it may provoke more legal action from Apple.

DOS 3.4 is expected to have a graphics interface
(as well as two device drivers which support Expanded
Memory and the LIM spec) and we hear it may look too similar to the
Presentation Manager and Windows. More on this rumour
as we hear it.
[***][6/21/88][***]
NOVIX SHIPS C COMPILER FOR STACK BASED NC4016 CPU
MAASEIK, BELGIUM (NB) -- Novix, the company that
introduced the NB4100 PC-compatible coprocessor that
executes the high level language (HLL) Forth, is set to
revolutionize the market again by offering a C compiler
with performance that beats a 386 or a 68020. In
tests made with the Fibonacci program (which calculates
factorials), the NC4016 offered performance improvements
by 100% to 267%. The 386 executes instructions at 4.0 MIPS
while the 4016 topped 19 MIPS at 16MHz and 7.2 MIPS at
6MHz. The reason for the results are the stack
architecture of the 4016 (similar to the C language
itself) and the ability to combine multiple C functions
into single machine instructions.

The 4016 excels in interrupt control, where only 5 cycles
are required for the task switch, a process that takes a
386 or a 68020 more than 600 cycles.

The company offered C since about 40% of all the
programing environments in the US today use it as their
main language. The target environment includes the IBM PC-
compatible NB4100 board with 128K bytes of CMOS,
fast static RAM, and a fast interface to the PC bus.
[***][6/21/88][***]
LATTICE ANNOUNCES C++ COMPILER FOR AMIGA
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM (NB) -- Lattice has announced that
its new C++ pre-processor translates C++ source code into
C language, which is understood by the Amiga C compiler. A driver,
supplied with the product, is supposed to make the running of
this product a snap. C++ is an AT&T-developed language that
offers object-oriented programming on PCs. According to Lattice's
Wayne Nartker, "the fact that the OS of the Amiga is also object-
oriented, makes this an ideal vehicle for Amiga software
development."

The Lattice C++ which is offered at #399, utilizes
the AT&T translator kit. In addition, there are new
libraries supplied with the C++ package, which further
allows the compiler to take advantage of C++'s features.
[***][6/21/88][***]
VERBATIM'S 12MB FLOPPY DRIVE AVAILABLE IN GERMANY
MUNICH, GERMANY (NB) -- Yes, 12MB in a floppy diskette
that fits in a half height drive. Verbatim's new 12
diskette drive that connects through an SCSI port can also
read 3.3MB and 6.6MB diskettes. Targeted towards users who
need backup capabilities, such as CAD/CAM, DTP and medical
record management, the drive is available from Verbatim
distributors.
[***][6/21/88][***]
INEXPENSIVE VGA DISPLAYS FOR IBM PRODUCTS
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM (NB) -- Vanilla Computer has
released two VGA displays to the British market.
VAN-K1383D is an analog 13 inch color display while the
VAN-B1473E is a monochrome version. Both monitors are
compatible with VGA systems, and cost #399 for the color
and #149 for the monochrome version. The monochrome
display marks the first time where a display with 640 x
480 resolution in 64 shades of gray costs less that #150.
Suited for image processing applications (or for image
banks), they create a new price/ performance barrier.

[***][6/21/88][***]
EUROBITS...

    According to EURONET/DIANE news (an EC publication),
the European Electronic information market could reach $3
billion by 1990, compared with $9 billion in the US...

    ...One of the major items being looked upon by the EC
is IMAGE BANK TECHNOLOGY. To aid the market with facts and
figures on this important industry sector, the EC has
issued a report, called DOCMIX which offers recommendations
on the subject. This report can be obtained from Mr. Franco
Mastroddi, CEC, DG XIII/B, L-2920 Luxembourg...

    ...SWEDEN has opened a DATABASE SERVICE which can aid
people in examining communications related information.
Database information can be obtained from Televerkets
Databastjanst, S-10379 Stockholm...

    ...and while we are on the subject of SCANDINAVIAN
countries, NEWSBYTES EUROPE just got the T1000 fixed with a brand
new modem, which Toshiba is hoping to be able to ship to
its customers in the next couple of weeks. It is built in
Sweden and when we first tried it, we kept getting wrong
numbers. When Toshiba was called, they replied "well you
see that in Scandinavian countries, the digit 0 precedes
the digit 1 on telephones. Thus when you use a Swedish
modem, it dials one digit extra for each number you use.
Numbers 123 become 234 and so on." Well, we didn't know that,
and I am sure a lot of you did not know it either...

    ...An international conference on TRENDS IN THE USE OF
MICROS IN LIBRARIES is to be held at the Lisboa Penta
Hotel, from the 28th till the 30th September, 1988. For
more information contact COSINFOR, Rua Prof Reinaldo Dos
Santos 18-4D, P-1500 Lisbon...

    ...A conference on TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND NEW ECONOMIC
OPPORTUNITIES FOR EUROPE will be held at the Civic center,
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, September 13 till 15, 1988.
Contact: Miss Lil Bianchi, MARI, Old Town Hall, Gateshead,
Tyne and Wear NE8 1HE, United Kingdom...

    ...A DESKTOP PUBLISHING CONFERENCE is to take place
in Brussels, Belgium, from January 26 till 28, 1989.
Contact: MEETING ASBL, Rue du Trone 215, 1050 Brussels,
Belgium...

    ...POSITRONICA announces three new divisions to handle
client needs. POSITRONICA NETWORKING is designed to be a
systems house and solve client queries about networking
needs. Solutions include products from Wollong Group and
3Com. POSITRONICA MICROSYSTEMS distributes PC-related
products from such companies as 3Com, DCA, Tecmar, Plus
development and others. Finally POSITRONICA DATASYSTEMS
deals with development and research centers and offers,
amongst other products, the ASYST series of laboratory
software. Contact Eliane Hartog, Positronica,
Watermolenstraat, B-9440 Aalst, Belgium...

    ...and finally, the Soviets are catching up in
software. According to rumours reaching NEWSBYTES EUROPE,
many AT clones have been imported into the USSR for
software development. Apparently, there will be a massive
outpouring of Soviet software (similar to Tetris,
distributed in the US by Spectrum Holobyte) with zany
titles like "Tavarish" (means comrade) and "Nazdarovya"
(means Hi!).


[***][6/21/88][***]
E D I T O R I A L

THE FUTURE AND TECHNOLOGY

        One of the perks of this job is being allowed to look at,
and predict, the future. For instance, I predicted the Red Sox'
1986 World Series loss to the New York Mets long before the fact,
including its classic denouement, in which the Sox came within
one pitch of winning in 6 before losing in 7.

        Lately, however, I've become frightened for the future.
Maybe it was the birth of my daughter, Robin, which prompted
this. But I see an unstable economy, a shrinking world ecology
and no moves made to change the trends. The future, in some ways,
frightens me.

        Unlike most doomsayers, however, I also see solutions.
Every day. Technology got us into the mess, and technology offers
a way out. Computing gives us a way to solve problems and share
the solutions more quickly than ever before. Bio-technology
offers us a way to harness life itself, and maybe save life on
Earth in the process. Superconductivity will bring more wonders,
from new motors and faster circuits to more efficient transfers
of what energy we've got. And around every corner of technology
are new revolutions just waiting to happen.

        But technology is only a tool. As a tool, it can be used
for good or evil, liberation or imprisonment. That's why I talk
often, and loudly, about the implications of technology, the
possible bad as well as the possible good. Little computers can
liberate us, true, but they also let us compile dossiers on one
another. Connectivity is great, but when the TV starts watching
you a line has been crossed, and you're headed down the path to
Orwell's "1984."

        With the political campaign heating up, it's time to
examine whether we need a Technology Policy. Whether we need one
as a nation is debatable. Whether we need one as individuals
should be unquestioned.

        Such individual policies are called ethics. Ethics tell
us whether we'll pirate copies of Lotus 1-2-3. Ethics tell us
whether we'll create computer viruses for our ex-bosses. Ethics
tell us whether we'll release possibly dangerous micro-organisms
into the atmosphere, or spray chemicals on fragile eco-systems.

        Wall Street traders aren't the only people who need a
course in ethics. We do, too. Without ethics, we'll sell out
each other, and our planet, for profits. I think the fate of the
Earth is at stake in this. What do you think?


--Dana Blankenhorn

DANA BLANKENHORN IS THE NEWSBYTES SOUTH/MIDWEST BUREAU CHIEF. HE WELCOMES
YOUR DIALOGUE ON THIS MATTER.



[***][6/21/88][***]
BARRISTER LEGAL WORD PROCESSOR FOR PCs *EXCLUSIVE*
BUFFALO, N.Y. (NB) -- Barrister Information Systems Corp. plans
to release a PC version of its minicomputer word processor for
lawyers later this year. According to a company official, the
new product will be priced at about $495, and marketed initially
to Barrister's existing client base. But, the official told
NEWSBYTES, if the product is doing well, the company likely will
expand marketing. The word processor has many features designed
specifically for lawyers such as multiple-page footnoting,
automatic generation of tables of authority, a multitude of ways
to do automatic line numbering. Documents written on the PC
version are completely portable to the Barrister minicomputer
system.

CONTACT: Barrister Information Systems Corp., 716-845-5010
[***][6/21/88][***]
LOTUS CANCELS MODERN JAZZ
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (NB) -- Lotus Development Corp. has dropped its
plans for Modern Jazz, an improved version of its slow-selling
integrated Macintosh product, Jazz. Instead, Lotus will push a
version of 1-2-3 for the Mac. The company will continue to
sell and support Jazz. The embarrassing announcement came just a
day after Lotus said it was delaying the Modern Jazz concert.
Lotus Senior Vice President Frank King told reporters: "After
reviewing the Modern Jazz project, we concluded that it no long
fit into Lotus's long-term product strategy."

The decision to axe Modern Jazz won't have a significant financial
impact on Lotus, which sells only a tiny amount of software for
the Mac environment. However, coming hard on the heels of
announcements of delays in new versions of 1-2-3, the announcement
has caused some observers to question the ability of Lotus to
bring needed products to market in a timely fashion.
[***][6/21/88][***]
VETO OVERTURNED, VDT STANDARDS APPROVED ON LONG ISLAND
HAUPPAUGE, N.Y. (NB) -- By a 13-5 vote, the Suffolk County
Legislature has overridden County Executive Patrick Halpin's veto
of a law designed to protect computer workers against problems
associated with video display terminals. The legislature needed
12 votes to overturn Halpin's thumbs down on the measure. Halpin
objected that the measure would turn business away from Long
Island. Business leaders in the community lobbied hard against
the labor-backed measure. Suffolk County now becomes the first
jurisdiction in the U.S. with special VDT protections for
workers.

The new VDT law could stimulate action in other jurisdictions,
according to Louis Slesin, editor of "VDT News," a trade
newsletter. "There's no doubt that this will greatly encourage
many labor groups to put this on the top of their legislative
agendas," Slesin told the Associated Press. "I'm ecstatic," said
Jan Pierce of the Communications Workers of America, a backer of
the bill. The new law requires regular breaks for workers who
spend more than 26 hours a week staring at computer screens. The
employer must also pay 80 percent of the cost of annual eye exams
and eyeglasses. AFL-CIO officials say they are pushing similar
legislation in three other New York counties. Statewide
legislation in pending in about six states, including Connecticut
and New York.
[***][6/21/88][***]
EDS CRIES FOUL ON PEROT-POST OFFICE CONNECTION
WASHINGTON (NB) -- Electronic Data Systems Corp. has petitioned
the General Service Administration's Board of Contract Appeals to
block EDS founder H. Ross Perot from working with the Post
Office. The Postal Service recently signed a $500,000 contract
with a new firm Perot has formed, Perot Systems Corp., for a
study of ways to save money in the postal system. The expectation
is that Perot's firm would then get much larger contracts to
implement the recommendations. In forming his new company, Perot
raided EDS for several key executives. In its petition to GSA,
EDS writes of "numerous deviations from the standard practice of
procurement" in the award to Perot. Among other problems that EDS
cites: the Postal Service didn't properly advertise that it
wanted someone to perform the work Perot will do.
[***][6/21/88][***]
AT&T TO SUPPLY HOME COMPUTERS FOR SCHOOL KIDS
LANDOVER, Md. (NB) -- Beginning in September, 120 students from
Kenmoor elementary and middle schools will have computers
installed at home to use on school assignments, at no cost. AT&T
is supplying the computer gear. The Kenmoor schools were chosen
for the project in part because they already have the software
necessary for the kids to communicate with computers in the
schools. The schools are among 12 in Prince Georges County
involved in a special study of future teaching methods. According
to officials at the U.S. Department of Education, the project is
important because it doesn't teach computer literacy. Instead, it
uses computers to teach the traditional curriculum.
[***][6/21/88][***]
THE BULL COMES TO BILLERICA
BILLERICA, Mass. (NB) -- Honeywell Bull Inc. will depart its
Minneapolis headquarters for a new location in the Boston area in
1989. The company already has some 6,400 employees working in a
dozen communities around Boston, according to the "Boston Globe."
Honeywell Bull plans to break ground this summer for a
headquarters building in Billerica. The move will put Honeywell
Bull third behind Digital Equipment Corp. of Maynard and Wang
Laboratories of Lowell as the largest computer makers in the
state. Honeywell Bull was born in 1987 when Honeywell sold most
of its red-ink-stained computer business to Goupe Bull of France
and NEC Corp. of Japan.
[***][6/21/88][***]
PEN AND PAPER FROM MAXELL
FAIR LAWN, N.J. (NB) -- Buy a 10-pack of Maxell MD2-D floppies
through August and get a special pen for labeling disks and a
quick DOS reference guide, free. According to Maxell, the pen
features a special marking surface that won't affect data on the
disk. The DOS guide, by Educational Systems Inc. of Northbrook,
Ill., has plain English explanations of the most common DOS
commands. The offer last through August, as long as supplies
last.

CONTACT: Maxell Corp. of America, 22-08 Route 208, Fairlawn NJ 07410.
[***][6/21/88][***]
YOU'VE GOT A PARTNER WITH IBM
RYE BROOK, N.Y. (NB) -- International Business Machines Corp. has
designed third party firms marketing Big Blue's wares as "IBM
Business Partners." IBM has also structured its third-party
partners into five categories: authorized agents, authorized
remarketers, authorized application specialists, authorized
dealers, and authorized programs. "Over the past several years,
we have significantly expanded our relationship with these
business partners," said IBM's Edward Lucente, vice president and
group executive for U.S. marketing and services. "We believe this
new designation will further enhance that relationship to the
benefit of IBM, our partners and, most importantly, our
customers."
[***][6/21/88][***]
NEWS NIBBLES

CONCURRENT COMPUTER CORP. of Tinton Falls, N.J., has introduced
at new ruggedized top-of-the-line computer aimed at military
applications. Concurrent unveiled the new $225,000 computer at a
military exposition in Washington.

DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CO. of Maynard, Mass., has passed IBM as the
leading supplier of local area networks, according to a study by
Datapro Research Corp. and published in "Data Communications"
magazine. IBM had been the dominant LAN seller in two earlier
surveys.

DIGITAL has been hit by the DRAM price escalation and has raised
prices on average 3.5 percent for computer systems and 35 percent
for add-on memory products. Analysts say the move may lead other
computer manufacturers to raise prices.

XYVISION INC. of Wakefield, Mass., may be the target of a
takeover by a group of investors including Philip Greer of Weiss,
Peck & Greer of New York. The investors have acquired 5.7 percent
of the maker of computer-integrated publishing systems and says
it may make a run at controlling the company in the future.

NYNEX CORP. of New York will buy the systems integration business
of AGS COMPUTERS INC. of Mountainside, N.J., for about $275
million. Nynex is a regional Bell operating company and has been
looking for a domestic systems integration business.

OLIVETTI REALITY N.V., a subsidiary of the Italian computer
maker, has sold its 9.4 percent stake in STRATUS COMPUTER INC. of
Marlboro, Mass. Olivetti also renewed its agreement to buy and
resell the Stratus line of fault-tolerant computers.

THE AMERICAN ELECTRONICS ASSOCIATION of Santa Clara and
Washington has named Cheryl Russell director of environmental and
occupational health, based in Washington. She comes from the
staff of Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), where she worked on
energy and environmental issues.
[***][6/21/88][***]
NEWS RELEASE HEADLINE OF THE WEEK

From 1st Class Expert Systems Inc., of Wayland, Mass.:

"Expert development system development expert develops expert
training system for would-be expert system experts."

Come again?



[***][6/21/88][***]
BIG APPLE HITS THE UK
LONDON, UK (NB) -- The Big Apple Entertainment Company has
announced plans for 'The Bronx Club,' a frequent buyer software
club. Unlike other discount software clubs, the Bronx Club aims
to be the 'biggest, zappiest and most colourful software club
ever.'

Supporting the sales campaign will be Bronx Billy, the company's
mascot with the catch-phrase "have a nice play." (Groan).

Games buyers who send a stamped addressed envelope to Big Apple
will receive a free membership pack and details of the company's
first release - 'Oops!.' Buying software from Big Apple will
enable members to collect Apple tokens (does John Sculley know
about this? -Ed) to save towards a range of free gifts.

Have a nice play y'all!

CONTACT: THE BIG APPLE ENTERTAINMENT CO, Prestwich House,
         12 Brunswick Way, Brunswick Industrial Park,
         London N11 1HX.            Tel: [phone].
[***][6/21/88][***]
BTA PLANS TO LINK THE WORLD
LONDON, UK (NB) -- The British Tourist Authority (BTA) has
unveiled ambitious plans to link the British tourist trade into a
worldwide network, thereby allowing online access to information
on a two-way basis.

"Our plans hinge on a computer switch to connect the British
tourism product with reservations systems around the world," said
Frank Kelly, BTA's director of international activities.

Kelly revealed that the switch will be operated by a new company
jointly owned by the British travel trade and the BTA, and is
scheduled to come online next year. The new company and its
system will be called Access-UK, an acronym deriving from Action
for Coordination of Computing and Electronic Systems and
Services.

So, next year you'll be able to stroll into a downtown travel
agency in far-off lands and be able to book that holiday in
Shakespeare country, otherwise known as Stratford-upon-Avon.
Unless, that is, the telephone system is clogged up...

'Beep - ALL lines are busy - please try later...'

CONTACT: BRITISH TOURIST AUTHORITY, Thames Tower, Black's Road,
         London W6 9EL.                       Tel: [phone].
[***][6/21/88][***]
CITIZEN SLAMS EEC PRINTER DUTIES
RUISLIP, MIDDLESEX (NB) -- Citizen Europe is getting hot under
the collar at a provisional 33.4 per cent levy that's been
imposed on European sales of its printers by the European
Economic Community.

Robin Marriott, European marketing manager with Citizen, is very
disappointed with the EEC's decision to impose the levies, which
will take effect shortly.

"I don't see the European manufacturers who prompted this levy as
dramatically increasing their market share," he said, noting that
the EEC may extend its levy to manufacturers operating
'screwdriver' printer construction plants in Europe.

"The only people who will make a killing out of this will be
manufacturers from Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong, who have already
been given a free ticket supplying printers under European brand
names," he added.

"Ultimately, printer prices will rise, The cost of sourcing
components in Europe is higher than in Japan and this will have
to be passed on to the end user," predicts Marriott, who adds
that an average price rise of around ten per cent seems the
likely outcome.

"The losers in the whole affair will be the end-users:
individuals, businesses and, sadly, schools and education in
general who are already fighting an uphill battle to equip
themselves with even minimal computer equipment," he added.

CONTACT: CITIZEN EUROPE - 0895-71621
[***][6/21/88][***]
FRONTIER: AGGRESSIVE PRICE CUTS
HARROGATE, NORTH YORKSHIRE -- It's sale time on Atari ST and
Commodore Amiga hard disks at Frontier Software, thanks to the
recent appreciation of sterling against the dollar. Frontier has
announced price cuts of up to 33 per cent on its entire range of
Supra hard disks. A 30Mb hard disk drops, for example, from #849-
95 down to #699-95.

"We're glad that these price changes allow the Supra range of
hard disks to stay competitive and hope they'll make it easier
for others to become hard disk owners," said Martin Walsh,
marketing manager of Frontier.

CONTACT: FRONTIER SOFTWARE, PO Box 113, Harrogate,
         North Yorkshire HG2 0BE. Tel: [phone].
         Email: Compuserve - 72007,163
                Dialcom/Telecom Gold - 72:MAG40240
[***][6/21/88][***]
IBM TIME AGAIN: TUESDAY 21 JUNE
BIRMINGHAM, UK (NB) -- The Birmingham National Exhibition centre
hosts a major product launch from IBM, the second this month,
this Tuesday. IBM remains tight-lipped on what its new products
will be, but NEWSBYTES UK has been doing some digging...

On Tuesday, IBM will announce the AS (short for Application
System) series of minicomputers. Designed to unify the System/36
and /38 computer families (the /3x generation), the AS series
will be as much as 50 per cent faster than, yet remain price
competitive with, the /3x families of minicomputers.

Beta-test versions of the AS family of computers are said to have
been installed at selected sites in the UK from as far back as
last November. The companies concerned, of which which NEWSBYTES
UK knows at least one, have been sworn to secrecy on the project,
in return for advance installation benefits of the premium AS
computers.

The AS family of computers will be downwards-compatible with the
System /36 and /38 series, a fact which will bring a sigh of
relief from DP managers the world over. The new machines will, in
many cases, be capable of plug-replacement on the old
installations, making the upgrade path very easy for users.
Pricing? Start looking at #20,000 and range up to #180,000 and
you won't go too far wrong.

CONTACT: IBM UNITED KINGDOM, Baltic House, Kingston Crescent,
         Portsmouth, Hampshire PO6 3AU.     Tel: [phone].
[***][6/21/88][***]
MICRONET/TELECOM GOLD DEAL DEBUTS
LONDON, UK (NB) -- Micronet, the microcomputing information
provider on Prestel, is fighting back against criticism of the
Prestel price increases that will take effect on 1 July this
year.

As part of its marketing battle, Micronet is offering a package
deal of Prestel and Telecom Gold together for #23 per quarter
year. No other up-front charges are imposed. Taking advantage of
this deal effectively give purchasers a free subscription to
Micronet.

John Tomany, MD of the Telemap Group, which provides the Micronet
service, sees the package deal as attracting a lot of new
members:

"It makes sense for computer users who access Prestel and
Telecom Gold for computer users who access Prestel and Telecom
Gold to use Micronet as well and at this price, they'd be silly
not to," he said.

Will Micronet's package deal deter many existing users from
logging off Prestel for the last time? NEWSBYTES UK doubts it,
but predicts that Micronet will survive, but in a changed form.
The system's subscriber base will probably move up-market, with
subscription figures pulling back from the marginal losses the
Prestel price increases cause.

CONTACT: TELEMAP LIMITED, Durrant House, 8 Herbal Hill,
         London EC1R.                 Tel: [phone].
[***][6/21/88][***]
NOVELL: INTEGRATING THE DOS, OS/2 AND MAC ENVIRONMENTS
LONDON, UK (NB) -- Novell UK has unveiled a new innovation in
networking software, Netware V2.15 which links the Dos, OS/2 and
Macintosh environment together.

According to Andrew Zoltowski, general manager of Novell UK, more
than 18 independent developers including Ashton-Tate, Lotus and
Wordperfect, have already made commitments to produce compatible
products supporting Netware 2.15 and Netware for the Macintosh.

"By drawing the Macintosh under the Netware networking umbrella,
it means that users of the PC, PS/2 and Macintosh can all share
information on a single network. So, if you like working under
Dos you can, whilst your colleague can work on his Mac. It's all
possible now under Netware," Zoltowski told NEWSBYTES UK.

Apple UK is pretty keen on the new Novell networking software as
well. Jane Burley, Apple UK's marketing manager for desktop
communications told NEWSBYTES UK she sees the new software as
forming the basis of an industry standard.

"Applications programs written to Appleshare are also 'Netware
aware' and will work with the Netware server. Developers will be
able to support industry-standard application program interfaces
which will enable them to optimize the most powerful features of
both Macs and PCs," she said.

When the dust settles from the product announcement fanfare, it
will be interesting to see how many Mac users will allow their
machines to be hooked into the same network as a PC. Most Mac
users NEWSBYTES UK has come in contact with are very sniffy about
the PC. Could this be the end of One-up-Macship?

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

          NOVELL UK, Avon House, Sweetwell Road,
          Bracknell, Berkshire RG12 1HH.
          Tel: [phone].
[***][6/21/88][***]
WORLD'S MOST POWERFUL COMPUTER INSTALLED
EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND (NB) -- The world most powerful supercomputer
is being built in Scotland, according to THE INDEPENDENT
newspaper. The project, under the leadership of Professor Dave
Wallace, Edinburgh University is commissioning a supercomputer to
be used for several science research projects, including those
involving nuclear physics and meteorology.

The first stage in the project has been completed, bringing more
than 200 Transputer systems online with an overall capacity of
800Mb and an arithmetical capability of 200,000,000 operations
per second.

When complete, the Edinburgh University supercomputer will be the
world's most powerful computer. Until, that is, someone builds an
even bigger machine...
[***][6/21/88][***]
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
+ BRITBYTES - Bytes of news from around the UK... +
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

MONOTYPE has signed a software licensing deal with ADOBE SYSTEMS.
Terms of the agreement allow Monotype to use Adobe's Postscript
interpreter as a software interface to its Lasercomp Imaging
Recorders. The deal will also allow users of Monotype typesetting
equipment users access to Postscript on their machines.

DIGITA INTERNATIONAL (0395-45059) will release an Amiga version
of Digicalc next month. The budget (#39-95) spreadsheet package
joins the Atari ST and IBM PC versions which are selling well,
according to Jeremy Rill of the company.

HUSKY COMPUTERS (0203-668181) has released a 1.1Mb version of its
hand-held Husky Hawk computer. The basic 80K machine, complete
with 40 character x 8 line LCD screen, CP/M and Basic, will
continue to sell at #495, whilst the 1.1Mb machine will set you
back a cool #1,245.

INTEGRATED NETWORKS (0235-555595) has launched a 150Mb file
server at a rock-bottom price. The 80286-based file server
conforms to Novell Ethernet standards and costs #5,995, which
includes Novell's Netware 286 networking software.

MIRRORSOFT (01-377-4645) is distributing special demonstration
versions of Graphicworks 1.1, its desktop publishing package for
the Apple Macintosh. Mirrorsoft dealers are being encouraged to
copy the demonstration versions of the #79-95 package for their
customers.

PARALLELOGRAM, the monthly newsletter concentrating on parallel-
processing and transputer-related products, has cut its
subscription price by more than #250 to #39 a year. The monthly
newsletter has also doubled in size to 24 pages. The changes are
thanks to advertisers considerably subsiding Parallel
Publishing's (01-444-1196) printing costs.

TORCH COMPUTERS (0223-841000) has released a low-cost workstation
version of its Triple-X Unix computer series. The #4,500 machine
is NFS (Network File Server) compatible and comes complete with
2Mb of Ram, a 20Mb hard disk and all software as standard.

[***][6/21/88][***]
AND FINALLY: DIAL-A-POEM FROM BRITISH TELECOM


Tired of bashing the computer keys? Put your feet up and dial
0898-222-255 and listen to a major poet recite some of his/her
very own poetry. Dial-a-poem is here, thanks to a joint
initiative between the English Language Society (ELS) and British
Telecom.

According to Sarah Chesney of the ELS, several members had
expressed concern that poetry seemed to be fading away in modern
society and how nice it would be to see poetry available for
everyone over the phone. Thanks to the use of BT's premium call
services (25 to 38 pence minute on the 0898 area code) Dial-a-
poem was relatively easy to organize.

A total of six poets - Gillian Allnut, James Berry, John Heath-
Stubbs, Bernard Kops, Kathy McPhilemy and Jeremy Reed - will
recite five minutes of their poetry, with programs being changed
weekly over the next six weeks. If the project is a success and
generates more than 1,000 calls a week, then the ELS and BT will
continue the service.