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/1989/nb890627.313

Text File | 1991-10-02 | 149KB | 3,640 lines

(EXCLUSIVE)(APPLE)(SFO)(00001)

MULTIMEDIA SHOW PREVIEW
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 23 (NB) -- The first
Multimedia and Hypermedia Expo is slated for June 27-29 at the San
Francisco Moscone Center. IBM and Apple are slated to be the two
biggest exhibitors, with IBM planning to show various new technologies
which allow the integration of high fidelity sound, image, and text
in a multimedia presentation. Commodore, with its Amiga Computers,
Intel, and MacroMind are among other firms exhibiting, according
to Victor Harwood, the show planner.

The show will also involve the first public viewing of Guernica, a
multimedia project created by animator Bob Abel in which a Macintosh II,
videodisk player, and SuperCard stacks are used to interact with an
image of the famous Picasso painting of the Spanish civil war.
The presentation involves access to videotape of Picasso, Cubists,
Eluard, bullfighting, and a variety of other related subjects, all
in an interactive multimedia forum. Abel, of Odyssey Filmmakers,
known for his work with Stanley Kubrick on the movie "2001,"
will show only a 10-minute videotape of the event at a Wednesday
morning keynote session, but he expects to find a room where the exhibit
can actually be restaged at the Moscone Center, he told Newsbytes.

Conferences on the agenda are on such subjects as Cyberspace: Artificial
Reality, TV in a PC, Interactive Entertainment, Full Motion Video and
the Multimedia Computer, Translating Text into HyperText, Interactive
Optical Media, and more. The event is guaranteed to stimulate and
inform, involving virtually all the industry experts in the emerging
field of multimedia.

(Wendy Woods/19890623)


(NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00002)

CUPERTINO WRITES MAC OWNERS
CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 23 (NB) -- In a move which even
long-time Apple enthusiasts have never seen, Apple Computer has written
all Macintosh computer owners personally to inform them of upgrades and
new hardware and software products. Bypassing the traditional dealer
and press channels, Apple Computer's letter, sent to more than 500,000
registered Macintosh owners, has information on upgrades available
for SE owners to convert to SE/30 machines, a II to a IIX, the new
two-page and portrait monitors, a 160 megabyte internal hard disk
option, as well as the existence of System Software 6. 02 and
HyperCard version 1. 2. 2

The letter, signed by Bill Coldrick, senior vice president of sales for
Apple's U.S. operations, promises, "This is the first notice in an ongoing
service to keep you informed. "

Apple has clearly responded to customer complaints that it needs to
get more involved with its end-users. Says Jackie Whiting, a
customer relations manager, "The feedback has been very positive.
Some users even sent back photocopies with 'This is great' scrawled
on them. "

(Wendy Woods/19890624)


(NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00003)

MACDEX NIXED
NEEDHAM, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 23 (NB) -- The Interface Group
has cancelled Macdex for Fall/Comdex in November in Las Vegas. The
Macintosh-specific trade show, staged for the first time in tandem
with Spring/Comdex in Chicago, drew a slow trickle of interest and
was soundly criticized by both show-goers and exhibitors alike. Their
main objections were the timing -- the show fell between two other
major Apple end-user shows -- Interface's decision to have two separate
registration areas for Comdex and Macdex, and most importantly,
the failure of Apple, itself, to support the separate show.

An Interface Group spokesman Victor Cruz says, "The amount of
interest hasn't warranted having a separate show. "He says many
of the exhibitors who were going to display their wares at Macdex
will now do so as a part of the main Comdex.

(Wendy Woods/19890623/Press Contact: Victor Cruz, 617-449-6600)


(NEWS)(APPLE)(WAS)(00004)

CA BUYS CRICKET
GARDEN CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 22 (NB) -- Pending
approval by Cricket's shareholders, Computer Associates
International, Inc. will acquire all of the business and assets
of Cricket Software. Cricket has become a major supplier of Apple
Macintosh graphics products in the past four years.

Said CA's Financial and Micro Products Group President Arnold S.
Mazur, "The acquisition is consistent with our strategy to
provide software solutions across multiple hardware platforms."

(John McCormick/19890622/Press Contact: Tracy Beaufort, 408-
922-2356)


(NEWS)(APPLE)(LAX)(00005)

ARCHIVE SHIPS MAXSTREAM
COSTA MESA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 16 (NB) -- The Data
Storage Division of Archive Corporation is shipping its quarter-
inch MaxStream tape subsystem for the Macintosh plus, SE, SE/30,
II, IIx and IIcx.

These tape drives have 60- and 150 MB storage capabilities. To
make the product easy-to-use, MaxStream includes user-friendly
backup software with cursor-sensitive help screens. The drives
are compatible with Multifinder and support Appleshare, TOPS,
3COM and Novel 2.15 networks.

Archive has signed six distributors and one major retail chain to
carry MaxStream products.

(Janet Endrijonas/19890623/Press Contact: Liz Sidman-Wright,
Archive Corporation [Data Storage Division], 714-966-5546)


(NEWS)(APPLE)(LAX)(00006)

NEW VERSION QUARK DTP TOOLS
DENVER, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 22 (NB) -- QuarkXPress 2.11,
the latest version of Quark Inc.'s page design, composition and
production environment for commercial publishing and graphics
arts professionals using Macintosh. It is the first desk top
publishing (DTP) software package to support the Open Pre-press
interface (OPI), a new specification for users to communicate
high-resolution color images to a variety of service bureaus and
pre-press systems.

QuarkXPress 2.11 offers the ability to customize the look of text
by editing kerning and tracking tables and also can customize
paragraph-based hyphenation and enhanced word and character
spacing controls. This version includes enhanced typographical
controls and direct support for three additional printer types.

(Janet Endrijonas/19890623/Press Contact: Deb Lovig, Quark Inc.,
303-934-2211, ext. 154)


(NEWS)(APPLE)(LAX)(00007)

NEW STYLE APPLE DTP DEALER
CULVER CITY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 22 (NB) -- Graphic
Plus has been named by Apple Computer as that company's first
authorized non-storefront dealer of desktop publishing systems
(DTP).

Graphics Plus is also a desktop publishing service bureau and was
chosen by Apple for its desktop publishing expertise and strong
performance in selling desktop publishing systems. Apple will
give special support to Graphics Plus under its new business-to-
business program.

Graphics Plus uses an aggressive multi-facet sales approach that
includes telemarketing, direct mail and comprehensive seminars.
It is Southern California's largest and most advanced resource
center for DTP.

(Janet Endrijonas/19890623/Press Contact: Steve Wheeler, Graphics
Plus, 213/559-3732)


(NEWS)(APPLE)(TYO)(00008)

MAC PLUS DISCOUNTED
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1989 JUN 16 (NB) -- In an unprecedented move, Apple
Computer Japan is discounting the price of the Macintosh Plus,
cutting the price of 398,000 yen [$2,800] by about ten percent,
or 38,000 yen [$260]. While price cuts have taken place in other
countries, they have never happened here.

The discount applies to customers who purchase the Macintosh
Plus through Apple Computer Japan directly. Purchasers get
paid back the discount amount by returning a photocopy of the
receipt and an attached written guarantee to Apple Japan.

Analysts say Apple Computer Japan has never captured much of
the Japanese market due to a revolving door in its executive suite,
with constantly changing presidents, as well as high prices,
and an inadequate marketing and maintenance organization.

However, industry analysts expect the discount policy will not
effectively solve the current stagnation of Apple Computer Japan, because
imported Mac Plus computers are already selling at a lower price
than Apple Japan's discount price.

(Ken Takahashi/19890622/Press Contact: Apple Computer Japan,
03-224-7000)


(NEWS)(APPLE)(LON)(00009)

APPLE DOUBLES EURO-PLANT
CORK, IRELAND, 1989 JUN 19 (NB) -- Apple Computer has announced
plans to double the size of its manufacturing plant in Cork,
Ireland. The company also plans to increase its permanent work-
force at the plant, which provides a variety of Apple hardware
and software for distribution over much of Europe.

Apple is investing $60 million in expanding the plant, and plans
to add 550 extra staff to its existing 400 permanent staff in
Ireland. The expansion will begin shortly, and take about a year
to implement.

According to a statement issued by Apple U.S., the expansion takes account
of the success of the Apple Macintosh in Europe, sales of which have been
soaring in the past 12 months.

(Steve Gold/19890623/Press Contact: Frank O'Mohoney, Apple
Computer U.K. - Tel: [phone])


(NEWS)(APPLE)(SIN)(00010)

SINGAPORE MACWORLD EXPO
SINGAPORE, S.E. ASIA, 1989 JUN 20 (NB) -- The arrangements for the
first exhibition sponsored by Apple Computer to display its latest
hardware and software products primarily for its Macintosh range of
computer to come to Singapore, is gathering momentum.

A four-day seminar will be held in conjunction with the show
from June 29 to July 2. The 24 sessions will feature speakers from Apple,
Aldus and Microsoft as well as software houses like Autodesk and Oracle
and users such as Kodak, Ford Aerospace and Federal Express.

Included in the list of speakers is Danny Goodman, author of
the bestseller, "The Complete Hypercard Handbook." Hypercard is a new
computing application that Apple is attempting to popularize to give
an extra boost to the existing popularity of the Macintosh.

(Michael Worsley & S.Roowi/19890621)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SYD)(00001)

SOFTWARE FIRM SLAMS EGGHEAD
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1989 JUNE 21 (NB) -- Adaptive Software, the
Australian developer and producer of Tracker business contacts
software package, has ended its trial of sponsored shelves in U.S.
Egghead stores.

Following the long-term practice of supermarkets, Egghead sells shelf
space to software publishers. For a reported US$6000 for 30 days, a
publisher can ensure shelf space for its products.

Adaptive did just this with Tracker, and despite a good response,
the company has withdrawn from the scheme. "Doing business with
Egghead was a nightmare," said Adaptive's Daryl Rosenmeyer in
California. "We sold 257 units in the month but Egghead still
wasn't interested in us without the subsidy."

(Paul Zucker/19890623)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00002)

SYMANTEC GOES PUBLIC
CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 23 (NB) -- Symantec Corporation
has gone public, selling 1,570,000 shares of its common stock for
$10. 50 per share. The offering should have net the firm nearly $10 million.

Symantec, for whom 30-percent of its revenues are derived from
the IBM program Q&A, sought the money for general corporate purposes.

The underwriters were Robertson, Stephens & Company, and Donaldson, Lufkin
& Jenrette Securities.

(Wendy Woods/19890603/Press Contact: Robert Dykes, 408-253-9600)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00003)

WORDSTAR TAKES A LOSS
SAN RAFAEL, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 23 (NB) -- WordStar International
lost $2. 24 million on revenues of $31. 84 million in the nine months
ending May 31 -- a loss that isn't as bad as the previous year's. In
1988, WordStar, then MicroPro, lost $4 million on revenues of $30. 375
million. Net earnings for the third fiscal quarter were $199,000.

A statement released by the company says that it is still litigating
a lawsuit with Challenger Software for breach of contract. WordStar
claims to have invested one million dollars in an unnamed Macintosh
software product which Challenger was under contract to create.

(Wendy Woods/19890623)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(WAS)(00004)

CULLINET EARNINGS
WESTWOOD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 19 (NB) -- Cullinet
Software Inc. has announced a net profit of $2.2 million, or
seven cents per share, for the fourth quarter, and results for
the fiscal year ended April 30, 1989.

Fourth quarter gross revenue was $59.3 million versus $64.3
million for the same period in fiscal 1988 but, including a one-
time $14.8 million charge for restructuring the company, the
company showed a loss of $20.5 million or 63 cents per share for
the fourth quarter last year.

Cullinet reported a net loss of $19.8 million, or 60 cents per
share for fiscal year '89, versus a net loss of $47.0 million, or
$1.45 per share, in fiscal 1988.

(John McCormick/19890622)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(WAS)(00005)

CA MERGES WITH CULLINET
GARDEN CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1989 JUNE 19 (NB) -- Cullinet
Software Inc. and Computer Associates agreed to a $333 million
stock swap merger deal.

The stock swap, two shares of Cullinet for one share of Computer
Associates' stock, is worth about $10 per share and still must be
approved by shareholders and government regulators, expected by
August.

The new company consisting of the merged corporations will retain
the name Computer Associates.

(John McCormick/19890620/Press Contact: Tracy Beaufort, 408-
922-2356)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(ATL)(00006)

TELECHECK BOUGHT
HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 19 (NB) -- Payment Services Co.
of Houston agreed to buy TeleCheck Services Inc., the world's
largest check acceptance franchise company, from McDonnell
Douglas Information Systems Co. Payment Services is the largest
independent TeleCheck operator in the United States. The
acquisition is expected to boost the company's revenues from $53
million to more than $100 million.

The announcement comes only weeks after Payment Services
announced plans to acquire the TeleCheck Los Angeles franchise
and TeleCheck Southcoast, a TeleCheck franchise operating in
7 Southeast states. TeleCheck guarantees payment to merchants for
each authorized check so if a check is not honored, TeleCheck
reimburses the merchant.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19890623/Press Contact: Laura Hughes, Payment
Services Co., 713-682-4705)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(ATL)(00007)

SPSS SOFTWARE IN USSR
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 21 (NB) -- SPSS International
BV, a subsidiary of Chicago-based SPSS, will begin distributing
its data analysis software in the Soviet Union through an
exclusive agreement with JV DIALOGUE, a Soviet/American joint
venture. STAT-DIALOGUE, a subsidiary of JV DIALOGUE based in
Moscow, will distribute SPSS/PC+, the company's data analysis
software package for personal computers. The agreement also calls
for STAT-DIALOGUE to translate SPSS/PC+ into the Russian
language.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19890623/Press Contact: Randolph Pitzer, SPSS
Inc., 312-329-2400)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(ATL)(00008)

USPS SOFTWARE FOR SALE
GLEN ELLYN, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 21 (NB) -- LPC, a
division of Pitney Bowes, announced it will sell its MailWare
line of mailing automation software to new customers for the same
price it offered the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). The promotional
price, good until August 31, offers discounts up to 66 percent from
retail prices for a family of products that help minimize postage
costs. The promotion also includes two years of free maintenance.

The LPC promotion is in response to a recent USPS request for
proposal to supply six USPS sites with list management,
merge/purge, ZIP+4 carrier route, palletization and other
services. LPC bid the project at $225,000, or $37,500 per site;
Group 1 at $0.01 for all six sites, and was awarded the contract
by the U.S. Postal Service. Those prices will now be available to
others.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19890623/Press Contact: Jeffrey C. Quinn,
LPC, 312-932-7000)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00009)

AIRLINE BUYS 386-BASE CPU'S
DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 19 (NB) -- American Airlines is
upgrading its employee [company reservation] computer system and
travel agent SABRE [travel agent reservation] computer system to
386-based personal computers in order to increase system speed
and memory capacity.

During the next two years, American expects to acquire 50,000 new
386- and 386SX-based workstations. Three vendors have been
chosen to supply the computers, AT&T, IBM and Tandy Corp. The
AT&T workstations are slated to be used primarily by SABRE Travel
Information Network [travel agents] customers. The IBM computers
are expected to be used in American's domestic reservations
offices while the Tandy units will be deployed for use by
American employees in domestic air terminals and selected
maintenance locations.

All three vendors' computers are expected to also be used by
employees in American's internal office system. The exact
allocation of purchases among the three vendors has yet to be
determined based on a number factors, however, it is
expected that any one vendor's share will be a minimum of 10
percent of the entire buy.

(Janet Endrijonas/19890623/Press Contact: Karen Cook, American
Airlines, 817-963-2009)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00010)

DATAPHAZ ADDS SUN
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 19 (NB) -- Phoenix,
Arizona-based Dataphaz, the largest Computerland franchisee with
eight stores in the Southwest has agreed to become a Sun
Microsystems VAR [value-added-reseller].

Dataphaz will initially market Sun workstations in Arizona and
New Mexico from its Computerland outlets in Phoenix, Tucson and
Albuquerque. Robert Beckis, Dataphaz vice president of
marketing, noted that the company had evaluated several higher-
end platforms before selecting Sun for both its product quality
and its commitment to the VAR distribution channel.

Dataphaz will form a separate group to support the Sun systems
and this group will operate across all three Computerland stores
selling the product.

(Janet Endrijonas/19890623/Press Contact: Robert Beckis,
Dataphaz, 602-351-2700)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00011)

AST ADDS SEARS CENTERS
IRVINE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 20 (NB) -- AST Research
Inc. has added the Sears Business Systems Centers to its
distribution channel.

The company is striving to become the leading alternative
supplier of high-quality, high-performance business computer
solutions. Within the past year, AST has signed several major
chains to carry its computer systems including ComputerLand
Corp., MicroAge Computers Stores, Inc., NEECO Inc., CompuCom
Systems and Entre Computer Centers Inc. AST has also begun
deliveries to Tandem Computers Inc. under an OEM arrangement.

The Sears addition follows the news of AST's recent General
Services Administration contract (Newsbytes 6/16) that enables
authorized AST federal resellers to solicit business with the
federal government.

AST is focusing on developing a balance between six major
channels of distribution for AST products. The six channels
include major chains, national distributors, independent and
value-added resellers, OEM arrangements, the federal government
marketplace and international sales.

(Janet Endrijonas/19890623/Press Contact: Joel C. Don, AST
Research Inc., 714-756-4942)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00012)

ACCEL COMPUTER FORMED
IRVINE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 16 (NB) -- Accel Computer
Corporation, a new subsidiary of Accel Company Ltd. [Tokyo] has
been formed to market imaging peripheral products for Macintosh
and IBM personal computers.

The first products will include "intelligent" hand-held scanners
and high-capacity optical disks for such applications as graphics
input for desktop publishing and word processing, computer-aided
design/engineering and fax imaging. Sales will be private label
through OEMs and systems integrators. Plans call for the
products using the company name to be distributed later.

Accel Ltd. also plans to open an office in the United Kingdom
before the end of 1989. The European office will report to the
U.S. operation.

(Janet Endrijonas/19890623/Press Contact: Lee Risner, Accel
Computer Corporation, 714-757-1212)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00013)

ACQUISITION MOVES FORWARD
DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 22 (NB) -- Recognition
Equipment Inc. [Dallas, TX] and Plexus Computers [San Jose, CA]
have followed up the letter of intent reported in Newsbytes
several weeks ago with a definitive agreement for Recognition to
acquire Plexus' image processing control software.

The agreement has been approved by both boards of directors and
is now awaiting approval from the Federal Bankruptcy Court
because Plexus has been in Chapter 11 since mid-March. Court
approval is expected by the end of July.

Once the deal is complete, Plexus technology will be marketed by
a wholly owned Recognition subsidiary, Plexus Software whose home
office will remain in San Jose.

(Janet Endrijonas/19890623/Press Contact: Jenny Haynes Barker,
Recognition Equipment Inc., 214/579-6024)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00014)

TOSHIBA DEALER REBATES
IRVINE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 23 (NB) -- Toshiba
America's Computer Systems Division has announced a new dot-
matrix printer dealer rebate program. Toshiba dealers can get
$30, $40, or $50 rebates for each sale of specified dot matrix
printers.

The program covers printers that have been sold since June 12 and
runs through August 25.

(Janet Endrijonas/19890623/Press Contact: Ruth Garvey, Les
Goldberg Public Relations, 714-730-4774)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00015)

MAI UPS BID FOR PRIME
TUSTIN, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 22 (NB) -- MAI Basic Four
has offered to boost its offer for Prime Computer if Prime will
commit now to a merger agreement.

This latest development in MAI's seven month unfriendly takeover
bit for Prime comes almost concurrently with two other
announcements that affect the pursuit. First, William Patton who
as president of MAI was expected to head the merged companies
unexpectedly resigned his position late Monday [see companion
story below]. Prime, having successfully fought off opposition
and postponing its annual meeting [and proxy fight with MAI] to
late July in order to have time to find a "white knight"
apparently has one in the wings. Prime would not disclose the
name of the company nor any details of an offer. Analysts
suspect the "white knight" Prime is hinting at may be a foreign
company.

In addition to its offer of more money, MAI also will offer
several incentives for closing the deal and will take into
account concerns of Prime's management regarding how stock
options, pending lawsuits and severance policies are to be
handled.

(Janet Endrijonas/19890623)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00016)

MAI PRESIDENT RESIGNS
TUSTIN, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 20 (NB) -- With no
warning, William B. Patton, Jr., abruptly resigned as president
of MAI Basic Four, June 19. His resignation is effective as of
Sunday, June 25. Patton will remain on the MAI board of
directors and continue to serve MAI in a consultant capacity.

MAI, involved for a long time in an unfriendly takeover battle
for takeover of Prime Computer, was expected to continue on its
present course despite Patton's sudden resignation.

During his tenure, Patton is credited with a major turnaround of
the company which had lost a total of $38 million in the four
years prior to his arrival. Patton had also been responsible for
MAI's acquisition of a number of service and software companies.
These acquisitions, while broadening MAI's product line, also
loaded the company with debt. In the fiscal year ended September
30, MAI earned $24.5 million on revenues of $420.8 million while
shouldering $182 million in long-term borrowing.

Wall Street took Patton's resignation poorly. Tuesday, MAI stock
closed at $5.625, down 37.5 cents.

(Janet Endrijonas/19890623)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00017)

WESTERN DIGITAL STOCK DROPS
IRVINE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 21 (NB) -- Western
Digital's stock dropped 15.3 percent in four trading days dipping below
its previous 52 week low this week.

Shares closed off $.75 at $9 in heavy trading [458,000 shares
Wednesday] on the American Stock Exchange. Company officials,
who were difficult to reach until the stock regained some of its
lost ground on Thursday [gain of $.62 on 419.100 shares traded]
would only say that the company had nothing to disclose regarding
the price plunge.

(Janet Endrijonas/19890623)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00018)

MICROAGE ADDS MORE INT'L
TEMPE, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 20 (NB) -- MicroAge Inc., one
of the oldest and largest personal computer full-service sales
location franchisers plans to expand its overseas operations.

MicroAge's current international network consists of more than
250 franchised, company-owned and affiliated locations on three
continents. The international expansion will be headed by R.
Duane Hall who has joined MicroAge as vice president and managing
director of MicroAge International Inc. Target areas for
expansion include Western Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific
Rim, all areas where Hall feels the most significant
opportunities for market-entry alternatives exist.

(Janet Endrijonas/19890623/Press Contact: Colleen M. Parker,
MicroAge, Inc., 602-968-3168 ext. 2274)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00019)

TDK TO BUILD CHIPS
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1989 JUN 20 (NB) -- In a contradiction of statements
made when it purchased U.S.-based Silicon Systems in May, TDK has
announced plans to build a semiconductor plant. TDK had proclaimed
that it would not produce semiconductors for a few years after the
acquisition of the U.S.-based Silicon Systems.

TDK will discuss plant facilities with its U.S. subsidiary, Silicon
Systems, and expects to produce application specific integrated circuits
or ASICs for avoiding competition with other Japanese makers.

(Naoyuki Yazawa/19890620)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00020)

HITACHI TO SUPPLY SCHOOLS
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1989 JUN 21 (NB) -- Hitachi will release translation
software called Executor, developed by Fujitsu, which enables
Hitachi's B16 personal computer to run School System. School System
is educational software which Obunsha, one of Japan's leading publishers,
developed for Fujitsu's FMR series PCs last July. Hitachi will release
Executor as early as the end of the month.

There are School Systems versions for Fujitsu's FMR series,
Matsushita Electric Industries' Panacom M series which are
compatible with FMR, and NEC's PC-9800 series. Hitachi has apparently
decided there is greater advantage for the three firms to unite
against NEC which dominates the educational computer arena.

(Ken Takahashi/19890622)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00021)

NEW CORVUS GERMAN CHIEF
HAMBURG, WEST GERMANY, 1989 JUN 23 (NB) -- Corvus, the networking
systems specialist, has appointed Norbert Ploog as its new sales
manager for West Germany. Ploog was previously with Schaulandt,
the West Germany computer distributor.

Ploog will be based at Corvus' offices in Hamburg, and his
principal responsibilities will be to service the company's two
West German distributors - Schaulandt in Hamburg and Servonic in
Munich - as well as widening Corvus' market share in West
Germany.

(Steve Gold/19890623/Press Contact: Corvus U.K. - Tel: [phone])


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00022)

MOTOROLA UPS U.K. STAKE
EAST KILBRIDE, SCOTLAND, 1989 JUN 23 (NB) -- Motorola, the U.S.
electronics group, is to spend a further $50 million on new
equipment for its chip manufacturing plant in East Kilbride,
Scotland.

The investment will allow Motorola to begin large-scale
production of dynamic random access memory chips at the Scottish
facility. The company has just begun volume shipment of 1 megabit
[Mb] DRAM chips to its customers in Western Europe. Future plans
call for liaison with Toshiba over the production of 4 Mb DRAM
chips at the Scottish plant.

(Steve Gold/19890623)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BRU)(00023)

EURO BANK RESULTS OUT
LUXEMBOURG, LUXEMBOURG, 1989 JUN 23 (NB) -- At the European
Investment Bank's [EIB] annual general meeting, Carlos Solchaga
Catalan, Governor of Spain, announced that the bank's balance
sheet stood at a healthy ECU 49.1 billion [about $56,000 million]
and "both quantitatively and qualitatively it bears witness to
the policy of pragmatic adaptation for the better pursuit of
Community development."

The EIB lends money to small and medium sized enterprises within
the European Community [EC], as well as in countries supported by
the ACP [Africa Caribbean Pacific] program which includes some
of the poorest independent nations in the world.

In his introductory statement to the Board of Governors, EIB
President Ernst-Guenther Broeder said: "The continued surge in
EIB's lending has been occasioned by various factors including
the rapid growth experienced throughout the Community."

During 1988, the EIB lent money for various projects, ranging
from electrification of specific areas, through to providing
computer support for companies in countries such as Botswana and
Nigeria. Specifically, the EIB loaned ECU 9,470 million within
the EC, and ECU 700 million outside EC territories.

(Peter Vekinis/19890623)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BRU)(00024)

TRANSATLANTIC CHIP CO-OPERATION
FRANKFURT, WEST GERMANY, 1989 JUN 14 (NB) -- AEG, one of the
largest West German industrial companies, and DY-4 of Canada,
have agreed to cooperate in the development and production of a
series of multiprocessor-based systems for the defence and
government market.

Terms of the agreement call for both companies to manufacture and
market multiprocessor computer systems under licence in their
respective home countries. The rest of the world is to be served
by ATM, a wholly-owned subsidiary of AEG, which currently imports
DY-4 kit into West Germany.

(Peter Vekinis/19890623/Press Contact: 069/600 3574)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SYD)(00025)

NEC/AUSTRALIA PARTNERS
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1989 JUNE 22 (NB) -- Giant Japanese
electronics company NEC has become the first Japanese company to
sign onto the Partnerships for Development Program in Australia.
It will build its research and development expenditure to AUS$40
million and its exports from Australia to almost AUS$200 million.

The decision will favorably place NEC for business with the
government and observers feel that other companies will now
follow. An NEC spokesperson said, "This fits in well with our
global policy. We are happy to spend this R&D money in
Australia."

(Paul Zucker/19890623)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SYD)(00026)

SILICON CITY HEADS TO EUROPE
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1989 JUNE 21 (NB) -- PC discounter Silicon
City has its sights set on Italy, France, the U.K. and Germany and
plans to set up outlets in these countries in 1990. The
Australian company presently has a turnover of AUS$30 million per
year and shows no sign of slowing its rapid growth which includes
lavish press and broadcast advertising. Managing Director David Ginges
claims to have his European ad campaigns worked out so all he needs is
the shop fronts. He plans these to be a mixture of joint ventures and
wholly owned outlets.

(Paul Zucker/19890623)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SIN)(00027)

BUSINESSMAN OF YEAR A WOMAN
SINGAPORE, S.E. ASIA, 1989 JUN 20 (NB) -- In the first contest of its
kind organized here by a local Rotary Club chapter, Rachel Swee,
the managing director of local software house Creative Software Pte.,
Ltd. was declared he winner of the first Small Businesssman of the
Year trophy.

Specializing in the design and marketing of financial and accounting
packages for microcomputers tailored to the needs of the local
marketplace, the private company, which was established in 1985, has
more than doubled its sales in the past year. It now exports three
packages, covering Staff Management, Payroll and Fixed Assets, and
expects sales to its 400+ clients to double this year.

The only female nominee among the finalists, the panel of judges
cited such factors as degree of innovation, success, market scope,
rate of expansion, and contribution to society as causing them to
choose her as the representative of the new breed of 'technopreneurs'.

(Michael Worsley/19890622)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SIN)(00028)

BANK EXPERTS IN SINGAPORE
SINGAPORE, S.E. ASIA, 1989 JUN 9 (NB) -- With backgrounds in banking,
telecommunications and system design, Winter Partners offers a
pool of know-how to the resolution of banking and information
technology issues for the financial services industry.

At the recent BanqueAsia'89 Exhibition in Singapore, they unveiled
details of their latest banking software - Computer Integrated Banking
[CIB]

Described as a new generation of banking systems for the 1990's and
beyond, the CIB's structure are built around expert system-based
knowledge base, relational database technology [db2, ORACLE],
transaction-based architecture around a central message pool in
adherence with S.W.I.F.T. and ISO standards, and automated code
generation from the knowledge base to selected target systems.

(Michael Worsley & Joseph Ming/19890620/Press Contact: Thomas Lee,
Winter Partners Pte. Ltd., Ph: [65] 225.5411)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SIN)(00029)

SINGAPORE MARKET INFO AVAILABLE
SINGAPORE, S.E. ASIA, 1989 JUN 19 (NB) -- PrimoTech, a local
information service company, has developed a computerized regional
marketing information service called AXXESS which gives a quick
response to buyers' enquiries about products.

Ken Cornford, the company's managing director, said that users only
have to supply Primotech with details about their requirements and it
would feed these into a minicomputer containing a database with
details of more than 30,000 companies offering over 40,000 products
and services. These include well-known names like Johnson and Johnson,
Philips and Rank O'Connors.

Users will receive the required information by facsimile or telex
within an hour of making the enquiry. An extensive backup service
forms the main feature of the service. A follow-up team will contact
buyers within 24 hours of the processing of a requirement to ensure
that prompt vendor response has been received.

The service is available to subscribers for S$900 a year, with no
extra charge for its use.

(Michael Worsley & S.Roowi/19890620)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SIN)(00030)

SIGPHONE CB IN DEALING ROOM
SINGAPORE, S.E. ASIA, 1989 JUN 9 (NB) -- For the first time in Asia,
the Sigphone CB has been introduced here by Lines Technology Pte.
Ltd., the sole agent representing Compagnie De Signaux Et
D'Equipements Electronicoues [CSEE] in France. This equipment provides
the total communication environment required in dealing rooms.

Sigphone CB has an ergonomic console, can transfer calls and lines,
display of the traffic status, dynamic boxes, prerecorded numbers and
quick codes. The central control unit consists of two units operating in
a controller-pilot mode and one programmable supervision unit linked
to a PC. The architecture is based on a modular approach which allows
the system to meet specific needs and upgrade for future requirements
in size or in nature of traffic.

Also, it can be connected to the PSTN as well as other PBX or
dedicated lines. Each operator position can be customized, and can be
reconfigured.

(Michael Worsley & Joseph Ming/19890619/Contact: Ms Angeline Low,
Lines Technology Pte. Ltd., Ph: [65] 2962877)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00031)

TSE ACCEPTS INSTINET
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1989 JUN 20 (NB) -- An interim
agreement will let Instinet Canada Ltd., a computerized stock
trading company, become a member of the Toronto Stock Exchange,
provided the Ontario Securities Commission approves. The
agreement says Instinet must execute all orders from Canadian
customers for stocks listed on the TSE through the TSE or another
Canadian stock exchange. The agreement also prohibits Instinet
from installing customer terminals in Canada before January 8,
1990, when the interim agreement is due to expire.

Some member firms of the exchange had fought Instinet's
application for membership, fearing its effect on the exchange's
business.

The Ontario Securities Commission is to hold a hearing on the
interim agreement on July 19.

(Grant Buckler/19890621/Press Contact: Leonard Petrillo or Steve
Key, Toronto Stock Exchange, 416-947-4515)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00032)

NEWBRIDGE TO GO PUBLIC
OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1989 JUN 21 (NB) -- Newbridge Networks
plans an initial public offering of three million common shares,
two million in the United States and the balance in Canada. The
maker of networking products has filed a registration statement
with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and with the
Ontario Securities Commission, and intends to list its stock on
the over-the-counter NASDAQ system in the United States and on
the Toronto Stock Exchange in Canada.

The initial public offering price is expected to be between
US$8.50 and US$10.50. Company spokeswoman Sandra Plumley said the
company does not know yet when the shares will be listed.
Proceeds of the offering will be used to repay debt and the
balance will be added to working capital, according to Newbridge.

(Grant Buckler/19890621/Press Contact: Sandra Plumley, Newbridge,
613-591-3600)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00033)

SIR-TECH CUTS IN OTTAWA
OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1989 JUN 20 (NB) -- Sir-Tech Software of
Ogdensburg, N.Y., is moving its Canadian sales and marketing operations
from Ottawa to Ogdensburg.

All orders and marketing inquiries will now be handled from the head
office in upstate New York. The Canadian office will remain open,
said company spokeswoman Nancy D'Amico, and sales and marketing
to Japan will continue to be handled from Ottawa. She said
Canadian sales and marketing required more resources and it was
therefore most economical to consolidate the North American
operations in one location.

Sir-Tech is a maker of simulation games, including the Wizardry
series, for home computers.

(Grant Buckler/19890622/Press Contact: Nancy D'Amico, Sir-Tech,
613-526-5861; Sir-Tech, 315-393-6451)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00034)

ALTOS NAMES DISTRIBUTOR
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA, 1989 JUN 19 (NB) -- Altos
Computer Systems has named CGS Inc. of Vancouver its exclusive
Canadian distributor, dropping three other companies which
formerly shared the job. The five-year-old CGS, which specializes
in Unix systems, is expanding from its Western Canadian base with
offices in Toronto and Montreal.

(Grant Buckler/19890619/Press Contact: Loretta Lam, The
Communications Group, 416-447-8591)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00035)

RICHMOND NAMES DIRECTORS
BURNABY, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA, 1989 JUN 19 (NB) -- Richmond
Software, created earlier this year to take over marketing of the
Maximizer software developed by Pinetree Software, also of
Burnaby, has named two new directors. They are Norman Francis,
vice-president of Computer Associates Canada, and David Scott,
president of the Vancouver-based venture capital firm Discovery
Enterprises.

(Grant Buckler/19890619/Press Contact: Tom O'Flaherty, Richmond
Software, 604-299-2121)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00036)

STM, ONTARIO EXPAND DEAL
MARKHAM, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1989 JUN 19 (NB) -- STM Systems,
Canada's largest computer service bureau, has expanded its
processing agreement with the provincial Ministry of Agriculture
and Food in Ontario. The deal adds C$7.9 million to the value of
the five-year contract, worth C$11.7 million when it was awarded
in 1987. The ministry's information systems have expanded from
four major systems five years ago to more than 30 online systems
today.

(Grant Buckler/19890619/Press Contact: Ray Lancashire, STM
Systems, 416-979-3900)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(KUL)(00001)

THAILAND HIT BY VIRUS
BANGKOK, THAILAND, 1989 JUN 13 (NB) -- A new virus, the most
destructive yet, has hit Thailand's computer system, according to
the Bangkok Post. The paper reports that John Dehaven, a computer
security specialist, said, "This is a very subtle virus that can lay dormant,
literally, for years."

According to industry sources, two Thai banks and several faculties at
Chulalongkorn University had contacted the virus at the beginning of
last month. Called the Israeli virus because it was first detected
there, this latest hi-tech virus infection spreads quickly through any
computer once it is activated.

(Michael Worsley & S.Roowi/19890619)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(KUL)(00002)

CHIP SHOW SLATED FOR THAILAND
BANGKOK, THAILAND, 1989 JUN 15 (NB) -- Thailand will hold its first
Internepcon Semiconductor presentation locally from December 6 to 8
this year. The exhibition will feature components, equipment and systems
used in semiconductor and microelectronic design, production, processing,
testing and packaging.

Malaysia will be holding a similar exhibition, Internepcon
Semiconductor International Malaysia, earlier in Kuala Lumpur between
June 25 and 28. This show will be incorporating a conference called
The International Conference on Microelectronic Systems '89 [IMS '89],
themed "Towards Excellence on the Factory Floor."

(Michael Worsley & S.Roowi/19890621/Contact: Cahners Exposition Group,
Ph: [65] 2711013, Tlx:RS 39200 CEGSP, Fax: [phone])


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(KUL)(00003)

MALAYSIA'S WORKER SHORTAGE
PENANG, MALAYSIA, 1989 JUN 21 (NB) -- A shortage of labour has hit
factories in Penang, and a big hunt for workers has been launched
here.

Describing the shortage as due to the great demand for factory
workers, especially women, Jasmin Ismail, Seberang Prai Manpower
office manager said, "The demand is fuelled by the state's economic
growth."

Jasmin said the situation is such that some factories are even
recruiting men for vacancies normally reserved for women. He said his
office will send teams out to sign up applicants in many areas as "it
will be easier for us to go to areas with many potential applicants to
register them instead of waiting for them to come to our office."

High-tech companies which operate plants in Penang include Intel,
National Semiconductor and IMC Electronics.

(Michael Worsley & S.Roowi/19890621)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00004)

SUPERCOMPUTER DEBUTS
EDMONTON, ALBERTA, CANADA, 1989 JUN 21 (NB) -- Myrias Research
showed its SPS-2 parallel-processing supercomputer for the first
time this week, at a conference in Toronto. Formally announced
last fall, the SPS-2 is the only supercomputer manufactured in
Canada. Ken Gordon, director of business development at Myrias,
said one SPS-2 is already installed at the Alberta Research
Council, and a second has been shipped to the United States
Department of Defense. A third order will probably be announced
soon, Gordon added.

Gordon said the Myrias SPS-2 exceeds the performance of the Cray
Y-MP supercomputer in several benchmarks developed by the Los
Alamos Laboratories in the U.S. However, he said, supercomputer
applications tend to divide into those best suited to vector
processors such as Cray's machines and others more applicable to
parallel architectures such as that Myrias uses. Myrias's
competitors are therefore likely to be other makers of parallel-
processing systems rather than Cray, he said.

Prices for the SPS-2 start at about US$700,000. A 256-processor
system, like the one used in the benchmarks to which Gordon
referred, costs about US$3 million.

(Grant Buckler/19890621/Press Contact: Ken Gordon, Myrias
Research, 403-428-1616)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00005)

SOFTWARE AIDS IN CLEANUP
SIDNEY, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA, 1989 Jun 19 (NB) -- QUICKmap
mapping software from ESL Environmental Sciences here is helping
map and analyze the Nestucca oil spill on the west coast of
Vancouver Island. A joint federal-provincial team is using the
software to document oil sightings and display locations of
marine resources at risk. This helps the team to plan the
cleanup. The spill occurred in December when the fuel barge
Nestucca collided with a tugboat off Grays Harbor, Wash.

(Grant Buckler/19890623/Press Contact: John McDonald, ESL
Environmental Sciences, 604-656-1922)


(EXCLUSIVE)(GENERAL)(WAS)(00006)

COS LAB TOUR
MCLEAN, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1989 JUNE 21 (NB) -- Newsbytes today
attended a tour of the Corporation for Open Systems or COS
compatibility testing lab in McLean, VA.

COS is a non-profit foundation dedicated to improving the ability
of different computer systems to be interconnected, and the
testing lab is used by member corporations to test their products
for conformance to industry standards over 802.3 or Ethernet,
802.4 or Token Ring, and X.25 networks.

Formal testing sessions occur quarterly, but COS members can use
the laboratory at any time and representatives of Hewlett-
Packard, Unisys AT&T, Control Data, Data General, Bull HN,
Digital Equipment, and Sun Microsystems were using the lab during
the tour.

Bull HN Information Systems demonstrated the compatibility of its
X.400 Message Handling System, or MHS, with other systems at the
Open Systems Interoperability Laboratory, or I-Lab.

Using both X.25 wide-area and 802.3 or Ethernet local-area
networks, Bull showed conformation to the Open Systems
Interconnect standards. The new software will allow users of the
Bull electronic mail system to access public mail services
directly as well as other vendors' X.400 MHS systems.

(John McCormick/19890622/Press Contact: Marianne A. Elden, 703-
883-2742)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(WAS)(00007)

IIA NAMES PRESIDENT, PLANS CONVENTION
WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1989 JUNE 15 (NB) -- David C. Fullarton
was named the new president of the Information Industry
Association, effective June 26.

Previously, the 55-year-old Fullarton was president of Maryland-
based Consulting Services Corporation and, according to IIA's
Board Chairman Joseph J. Fitzsimmons, who is also VP of Bell and
Howell and president of University Microfilms International, Mr.
Fullarton was selected from more than 200 candidates.

Meanwhile, the Information Industry Association says its September
10-13 convention at the New York Hilton will focus on discovering new
markets, exploring innovative marketing techniques, use of
emerging technologies, and examining global developments.

The three-day meeting will have more than 40 separate sessions,
and the IIA expects in excess of 1,000 attendees.

The exhibit hall displaying the latest information-related
technology will be open to the public, and those interested in
exhibiting should contact Ken Leonardo at 202-639-8262.

The IIA is a trade association representing more than 750
companies involved with the creation, distribution, and use of
information.

(John McCormick/19890622/Press Contact: Barbara Van Gorder, 202-
639-8262)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(ATL)(00008)

DATAPOINT SHOWS NEW LANS
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1989, JUNE 20 (NB) -- Datapoint
unveiled its new PC networking software products and workstations
at PC Expo. The DATALAN/XA (DATALAN/Extended Architecture) SMB
server software for Datapoint's 7000-series multiprocessors
provides file application and communications service for IBM-
compatible PC networks.

The diskless workstations are designed for production
environments where the cost and security risk associated with
disk-based personal computers make general-purpose PCs
unacceptable.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19890623/Press Contact: Don Pothier, Datapoint
512-699-7477)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(ATL)(00009)

NORTHWESTERN LEARNING LAB
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A. 1989 JUN 20 (NB) -- Andersen Consulting will
give Northwestern University $12.5 million over the next five years to
develop computer tools which will help educate and train industrial
workers.

The university will create a new Institute for Learning Science for the
purpose, headed by Roger C. Schank, formerly director of the Yale
Artificial Intelligence Project. The center will have over 100 employees
by 1995.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19890623)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(ATL)(00010)

O'NEILL WIRELESS LAN
PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 17 (NB) -- O'Neill
Communications has launched the local area wireless network, or
LAWN, which uses radio transceivers and no wires at all. "It's
incredibly easy to install, easy to use, a totally portable
system," spokesman Julie Stewart told Newsbytes.

Any PC equipped with a $495 LAWN transceiver can send files to any other
LAWN transceiver, up to 500 feet away -- 100 feet if there are walls
between the two. The system operates at 38,400 bits per second
and can support two 9,600 bit per second links between devices at
once, with the remaining bandwidth assigned to overhead. Spooling
lets computers transfer data in the background, and electronic
mail comes as standard equipment.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19890623/Press Contact: Julie Stewart, O'Neill
Communications, 609-924-1095)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00011)

ASHTON-TATE CONFERENCE
TORRANCE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 19 (NB) -- A Meeting of
the Minds III, Ashton-Tate's third national developer conference,
is scheduled to be held September 19-22 in Anaheim, CA.

The conference is designed to provide corporate, government and
commercial developers as well as consultants with the information
and instruction on the latest development tools and techniques
for Ashton-Tate products. The conference will offer more than 30
technical sessions taught by a faculty of 100 professional
developers, industry experts and Ashton-Tate technologists. The
curriculum will be more extensive than in earlier conferences and
will include a special one-day Macintosh product conference and a
two-day Framework product conference for which attendees can
register.

(Janet Endrijonas/19890623/Press Contact: Brad Stevens, Ashton-
Tate, 213-538-7348)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00012)

NEW TECH FROM MCDONNELL D
SANTA ANA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 21 (NB) -- McDonnell
Douglas Information Systems has introduced an advanced processor
and memory architecture for its Series 6000 minicomputer line.

A set of CMOS ASIC [application specific integrated circuit]
chips designed by the company are said to increase CPU [central
processing unit] performance by 70 percent, reduce power
consumption and heat dissipation, and free as many as three back
plane board slots to accommodate added peripheral or controller
functions.

(Janet Endrijonas/19890623)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00013)

SUPERQUEST CONTEST 1989
ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 22 (NB) -- The Cornell
National Supercomputing Facility [CNSF] has taken over the
SuperQuest competition that introduces high school students to
supercomputing.

SuperQuest is the only national computational science competition
for high school students in the U.S. With support from IBM and
the National Science Foundation, SuperQuest 1989 will offer
supercomputing access and training to the four winning teams who
hail from Houston, TX, Aurora, IL, Silver Spring, MD and Durham,
NC.

Six other schools received honorable mention and five individual
students were given special recognition for their projects. The
finalists were chosen from 75 entries based on the scientific and
technical quality of their proposed projects. CNSF has taken
over the reins of SuperQuest since founding sponsor ETA Systems
went out of business.

(Janet Endrijonas/19890623/Press Contact: Dennis Meredith,
Cornell University, 607-255-3651)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00014)

RICOH AWARDS TO PCPI
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 22 (NB) -- Ricoh
Corporation has awarded Personal Computer Products Inc. [PCPI]
its highest honor for performance and customer satisfaction
naming PCPI "Ricoh OEM of the Year."

PCPI also received Ricoh's "Sales Excellence Award" and was named
to Ricoh's "Million Dollar Club."

PCPI is a developer, manufacturer and marketer of application-
specific products for laser printers.

(Janet Endrijonas/19890623/Press Contact: Eric W. Gaer, PCPI,
619-485-8411)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00015)

FUJITSU GETS NEW LOOK
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1989 JUN 21 (NB) -- Fujitsu has changed its
symbol mark just as the corporation has achieved sales of two
trillion yen [$13.8 billion] and revenues of 100 billion yen
[$690 million] in fiscal 1988. Another aim for the renewal is to
unify the company's visual image for the next century.

The new symbol mark is based on the English characters FUJITSU.
The top of the letters J and I are the symbols for infinity,
with which Fujitsu hopes to convey a sense of endless potential.
Also, the infinity symbol looks like the earth and the sun, so
Fujitsu hopes to convey an image of expanding into space.

Meanwhile, Fujitsu's new corporate colors are red and gray --
red stands for passion toward future, brightness, and familiarity,
and gray represents intelligence and creativity pursuing the most
advanced technology, says company officers.

(Ken Takahashi/19890622)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(BRU)(00016)

SOFTWARE AG'S NEW RDBMS
DARMSTADT, WEST GERMANY, 1989 JUN 19 (NB) -- Software AG, West
Germany's leading software houses, has announced that its first
relational database management systems [RDBMS] applications
system will be available in November, 1989.

The package - Adabas Entire - is based on two popular packages,
Adabas and Natural, and uses entity-relation technology, a
technique pioneered by the Professor Peter Chen.

(Klaus Rosenthal/19890623)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(BRU)(00017)

DIEBOLD'S 30TH ANNIVERSARY
FRANKFURT, WEST GERMANY, 1989 JUN 23 (NB) -- Diebold, the West
German technology giant, will celebrate its 30th anniversary next
month. The celebration will be held at the Pullman Hotel Savigny
in Frankfurt on 6 July, 1989.

The main speech, to be given by Dr. Gerhard Adler, Diebold's
chairman, is entitled '30 Years of Diebold - from EDP consultant
and market expert to management and technology advisor.'

(Klaus Rosenthal/19890623)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(KUL)(00018)

EDI FOR MALAYSIA
PORT KLANG, MALAYSIA, 1989 JUN 15 (NB) -- Two local computer
companies have offered to provide electronics data interchange [EDI]
services to the EDI Steering Committee set up by the Malaysian
government and the Port Community System Committee here.

The two companies are Formis Computer Services Sdn Bhd and Systems
Technology & Telecommunications Sdn Bhd.

Formis is the authorized distributors for General Electric Information
Services [GEIS] while STT Managing Director Michael Tong said that his
company had the necessary expertise in providing EDI solutions.

During a recent seminar organized by Formis in Kuala Lumpur, David
Cox, an international marketing manager with GEIS, said that EDI is
evolving into a very important technology in the banking and financial
sector and implementation in the banking industry is currently
evolving in the U.S., Australia, Canada and Europe. He remarked that
this evolution is rather slow in the industry in this part of the
world.

"The lack of adequate EDI standards has also contributed to the
delayed progress in EDI worldwide. But soon there will be several new
EDI standards specifically for the financial sector," he said.

(Michael Worsley & S.Roowi/19890620)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(SIN)(00019)

BANQUE ASIA '89 FLOPS
SINGAPORE, S.E. ASIA, 1989 JUN 15 (NB) -- The Banque Asia '89 show
held here suffered the poorest response ever received for an
Information Technology exhibition held in Singapore in recent times,
making the results less than satisfactory for many of the exhibitors
who put in much effort and expense for the show.

Several participants commented that except for a good crowd on the
first two days of the show, Banque Asia was not a very successful
attraction.

Abdul Rahman bin Mohd Said, managing director of Maxinfo
Communications, consultants to the organizers Consulton Pte Ltd., said
in mitigation that although the crowd was thin, its quality was
excellent.

"Both delegates and exhibitors agreed that the event was highly
focused and well-organized. It attracted a high quality of
participants, exhibitors and visitors," he said in a press statement
on behalf of Consulton.

Among the products shown for the first time in Asia were a 12-inch
flat-screen liquid crystal display that weighed only 1.5 kg; an
identification card unit that reads 'intelligent chip' ATM cards;
passbook printers that have electronic journals instead of traditional
hard copy journals, and a wide range of new automated business
machines.

Nixdorf Computer, one of the fifteen companies which participated in
the show, displayed several products for the first time in the Asian
region, having been launched earlier in the year at the CeBIT Hannover
Fair '89. It also demonstrated banking applications that could operate
in four different environments: the Banking Network Computer's
proprietary operating system called DIPOS; the Targon Banking Server
system's Unix operating system and the Professional Workstation's MS-
DOS and MS-OS/2 operating systems.

(Michael Worsley & S.Roowi/19890619/Press Contact: Abdul Rahman
Mohd Said, Maxinfo Communications, Ph: [65] 2252285)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(SIN)(00020)

SINGAPORE COMPUTERIZES AIR CARGO
SINGAPORE, S.E. ASIA, 1989 JUN 16 (NB) -- Singapore International
Airlines [SIA] will set up a better computerized freight operations
system in September which will allow local air cargo agents to reduce
time spent on booking and tracking of shipments.

These agents will be able to gain immediate access to information on
SIA's flight schedules and space availability on the Freight
Operations and Reservations System Computer [FORSC].

SIA said that it would be the first airline to offer cargo agents a
computerized system. At a monthly rent of S$350 [US$180], FORSC will
initially be installed in about 65 local cargo agencies located at
Changi Airport, with the system being accessible to the rest of
Singapore by the year's end.

FORSC will also provide access to TradeNet, the computer system which
facilitates the exchange of trade information and documents
electronically.

Huang Cheng Eng, SIA's cargo manager, said that FORSC's
implementation is in keeping with the government's efforts to upgrade
Singapore's air cargo industry, and SIA saw information technology as
a major driving force for future air cargo growth.

He said that SIA plans to expand the system to perform other functions
such as the generation of management reports. There are also plans to
be implemented later within the next two years to integrate the
agents' in-house systems and other airline and cargo community systems
with FORSC.

(Michael Worsley & S. Roowi/19890619/Press Contact: SIA, Ph: [65]
5423333)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00001)

JAPAN TRADE UNFAIR SAYS U.S.
WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1989 JUNE 20 (NB) -- The U.S. has
declared Japan in violation of Super 301 trade regulations in
three product areas, including supercomputers.

The Super 301 designation means that Japan has 18 months to
negotiate more open markets for U.S. companies, or its exporters
will face stiff trade restrictions.

Congressman Gephart said Tuesday that when an industrialized
country continues to have such massive trade surpluses with the
U.S. there must be something wrong, and this new action will
cause the Japanese to negotiate.

Wednesday the U.S. action was widely criticized in Geneva by
delegates to GATT, the General Agreement on Tarrifs and Trade, as
jeapordizing the ongoing Uruguay Round trade talks.

U.S. trade negotiator, Ambassador Rufus Yerxa, said,
"There has been a lot of confusion and misinformation as to our
present actions and future intentions," he said. "Any claim that
we are taking actions against GATT are simply not serious."
Washington's main intent is to seek "balanced negotiations in
priority cases of interest," and the administration wants "to
avoid fundamental conflicts which could weaken the GATT system."

Although the strongest condemnation came from the companies
targeted by the U.S. action, Japan, India, and Brazil, the U.S.
stood alone, with no nation supporting its stand.

(John McCormick/19890620)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00002)

LAPTOPS STILL FLY
WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1989 JUN 22 (NB) -- Secretary of
Transportation Samuel Skinner announced that, although there
would be increased inspection at certain locations, he would not
ban carry-on electronic devices such as laptop computers from
U.S. commercial airlines.

This move should come as a great relief to many computer
manufacturers and business users of the ubiquitous laptop
business tools.

(John McCormick/19890622)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(ATL)(00003)

COMPUTER CRACKER INDICTED
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 21 (NB) -- Lynn Doucette,
35, was indicted on 17 computer fraud counts alleging she led a
group of computer break-in artists who defrauded telephone
companies of $1.6 million by using other peoples' credit card and
access codes. Doucette, alias Lynn Kurie, has been in jail
without bond since May 24, when U.S. Secret Service agents
executed search warrants in Chicago, Detroit, Boston, Los
Angeles, Atlanta and Columbus, Ohio, to gather evidence against
her. Charges have yet to be brought against Doucette's alleged
accomplices.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19890623)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(ATL)(00004)

MORE HACKER CASES
DELRAY BEACH, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 17 (NB) -- Two computer
users have reminded authorities of the continuing vulnerability of
computer networks.

In Delray Beach, a PC user got into a Southern Bell central office switch
and rerouted calls from a Florida state parole office to a New York phone-
sex line, at Florida's expense. Southern Bell continues to investigate that
case.

Meanwhile, the Kansas City Star-Times reported in its June 18 editions
that a 14-year old in Prairie Village, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City, got
into an Air Force satellite over the course of six months and looked at the
confidential files of over 200 companies. Military men and executives of
companies such as Hewlett-Packard met in the suburb recently to discuss
what they can do. Reportedly the teenager, an Apple user, was hoping to be
hired as a computer security consultant.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19890623)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(ATL)(00005)

IBM WANTS BIG BLUE MARK
SHREVEPORT, LOUISIANA, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 8 (NB) -- IBM is actively trying
to secure as its trademark the "Big Blue" nickname reporters gave it years
ago. A peripheral board maker succumbed meekly, but Al Vekovius of
Softdisk isn't giving in without a fight.

Vekovius has published the "Big Blue Disk," an on-disk magazine with
software programs and articles, since 1986. It is the leading publication
in the field, with 90 employees. Vekovius says IBM attorney Steven Meyers
sent him a letter last October demanding rights to the name under the
Lanham Trademark Act of 1946, stating that IBM had registered the name
"big blue ribbons" to defend the mark. But Vekovius insists he used it first.
He said he's offered to negotiate a settlement, and hints darkly there is
another "Big Blue" which IBM really fears, not his little magazine.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19890623/Press Contact: Al Vekovius, Softdisk,
318-221-8718


(NEWS)(GOVT)(SFO)(00006)

NINTENDO GETS INJUNCTION
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 21 (NB) -- Nintendo of
American has been granted a preliminary injunction against Tengen
and Atari Games in the dispute over ownership of the Tetris video
game.

The U.S. District Court ruled that Atari Games and its subsidiary Tengen
must not market Tetris video game cartridges in the U.S. and those
retailers with Tengen Tetris product will have to remove them from
their shelves.

Tengen is being sued by Nintendo, which claims to have exclusive U.S.
distribution rights to the Soviet-developed video game.

(Wendy Woods/19890624/Press Contact: Bonnie Powell, 213-937-
7460)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00007)

UNISYS WINS BID
BLUE BELL, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 22 (NB) -- Unisys has
announced that it has received a three-year, $24 million contract
with the State of Louisiana to continue providing claims processing
service for Medicaid.

(John McCormick/19890623)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00008)

ERC WINS FED CONTRACTS
FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 21 (NB) -- ERC International
has announced that it was awarded two federal government
contracts worth a total of $3 million, to supply professional and
technical services to the U.S. Department of Labor and the Office
of Personal Management.

(John McCormick/19890623)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00009)

TOXIC WASTE BBS
WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1989 JUN 20 (NB) -- In a move that
recognizes how widespread the use of computers is among the
general public, the Environmental Protection Agency has recently
created a public access bulletin board containing the toxic
emissions of 19,278 industrial plants.

The information, made available to the EPA under the 1986 right-
to-know law which mandated that local communities be
given access to information about local polluters, can be
accessed by any computer through a phone link at a cost of $25
per hour.

More than twenty-two billion pounds of toxic chemicals are
released each year in the U.S., most of which are dispersed
relatively harmlessly, but the new database will help
environmental activists locate hotspots with the highest
potential for health risks.

(John McCormick/19890620)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(ATL)(00010)

GOEKEN WINS OVER GTE
WHEATON, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 21 (NB) -- Jack Goeken, founder of
MCI and, later Airfone Inc., won a state suit against GTE, which bought
Airfone a few years ago. He can now legally compete against it under the
name In-Flight Phone of Oak Brook, Illinois.

When Goeken and Western Union sold the Airfone company to GTE in 1986,
a non-compete clause was in the contract, but Judge John W. Darrah ruled
GTE violated that agreement by failing to give Goeken control over the
Airfone subsidiary, which has since been plagued with problems. Goeken's
new venture will have problems, too, since airlines worldwide recently
joined to create a satellite-based airplane communications system.

GTE, based in Stamford, Connecticut, said it will appeal the ruling,
while Goeken said he will now seek damages against his former
employer.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19890623)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(ATL)(00011)

GEIS IN ONE-YEAR GSA DEAL
ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 21 (NB) -- GE Information
Services has been awarded a one-year contract by the General
Services Administration to provide electronic data interchange
services to the GSA/Federal Supply Service, along with a two-year
option. Electronic data interchange, or EDI, lets companies pass
invoices over the phone lines instead of mailing them.

GEIS also announced a joint venture with STET, a division of the
Italian conglomerate IRI, under which STET will acquire 40 percent of
GEIS' Italian operation, and build a new data processing centre
in Italy. Currently, Italian clients are served by a center in
the Netherlands.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19890623/Press Contact: Steve Haracznak, GE
Information Services, 301-340-4494)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(TYO)(00012)

BTRON NOT DEAD
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1989 JUN 16 (NB) -- The Center for Educational
Computer has denied rumors that it has abandoned the use of Business
TRON as the operating system of choice for future educational
computers.

The Center says confusion about its BTRON goals may have been sparked
by its failure to announce provisional specifications in the
spring. CEC is now expected to improve its method for publication
of relevant information, and aims to publish the specifications
before year's end.

(Ken Takahashi/19890622)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(BRU)(00013)

AUSTRIAN SUBWAY BUGGED
FUERTH, WEST GERMANY, 1989 JUN 23 (NB) -- Grundig, the West
Germany electronics company, has secured a major order from the
Austrian government. The order calls for Grundig to supply a
fibre optic technology video surveillance system for the Austrian
subway system.

The project will cost the Austrian government around DM 13
million [$6.5 million] and take three years to complete.

(Klaus Rosenthal/19890623)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(KUL)(00014)

INDIA LAYS LOW ON HIGH-TECH
NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1989 JUN 21 (NB) -- India is all set to acquire
advanced technology which is crucial to its modernization plans, but
government planners feel that hard economic considerations must come
first.

Presently, India can hardly afford to channel its scarce foreign
exchange towards the purchase of much of the most advanced technology,
so its planners have decided that the best way out is to have as much
"home-grown" technological development as possible. Hence it is 'going
it alone' in many fields.

There is no shortage of local talent in areas such as computer
software, missile technology and telecommunications, although it is
sadly very much lacking in viable computer hardware.

Indian expertise in the development of computer software is fast
becoming recognized internationally. Foreign software companies,
particularly those in the U.S., are contracting out more of their
programming requirements to their counterparts here.

In the field of telecommunications, several hundred young engineers
are presently involved in a project to develop computer-based digital
switching systems to eventually replace its ageing telephone systems.

However, for India's home-grown technology to succeed, a change has to
take place in the country's perception of the subject. For, according
to a recent report in Business India magazine, the chairman of the
country's association of computer hardware manufacturers said,
"People don't even have confidence in making printed circuit boards
here."

(Michael Worsley & S.Roowi/19890621)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(TOR)(00015)

PREMIER FEARS TAKEOVERS
HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA, CANADA, 1989 JUN 20 (NB) -- Canada needs a
strong regulatory body to screen takeovers of high-technology
firms, Ontario Premier David Peterson told a meeting of
government science councils here. The Toronto Star reported that
Peterson raised fears of Northern Telecom and Spar Aerospace --
the latter built the manipulator arm for the United States' Space
Shuttle -- being taken over by foreign companies. He pointed to
the recent takeover of Lumonics, an Ottawa maker of laser
equipment, by the Japanese company Sumitomo, and to British
Telecom's earlier acquisition of Mitel, also of Ottawa. Peterson,
who vigorously opposed the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, also
said the agreement would make foreign takeovers easier.

(Grant Buckler/19890622)


(NEWS)(IBM)(BRU)(00001)

ACER TO OFFER 486 SYSTEM
FRANKFURT, WEST GERMANY, 1989 JUN 23 (NB) -- Acer, one of the
most successful Taiwanese PC clone manufacturers, will launch an
80486-based machine before the end of the year. Company
representatives say that the Acer 486 will have considerable
speed advantages over existing 80386-based PCs.

Although detailed product specifications have yet to be
announced, Acer has revealed that its forthcoming 486 series will
be about 250 percent faster than existing 33MHz 80386-based
machines, and come with 2MB of RAM [random access memory] and a
80MB hard disk.

The Acer 486 system will be available towards the end of 1989 and
will cost around DM 14,000 [about $7000].

(Peter Vekinis/19890623)


(NEWS)(IBM)(SYD)(00002)

TESTERS LIKE NEW WINDOWS
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1989 JUNE 23 (NB) -- Australian developers of
Microsoft Windows-based products have been testing the unreleased
version 3.0 of the product and have given it the thumbs-up. They
told Newsbytes that the new features they liked included the
ability to address up to 16 megabytes of memory, proportional system
fonts, higher speed and new graphical interface.

The beta-test version is a 386-only product but the release
version will also support 286 machines. One user likened the new
product to OS/2. "We feel that this is just one more hint that
IBM and Microsoft want to make the transition to OS/2 as smooth
as possible," she said.

In addition, the developers talk of better development tools in
the new package but warn that not all existing programs appear to
run under the new interface. The product is expected by September
or October.

(Paul Zucker/19890623)


(NEWS)(IBM)(SFO)(00003)

DYNABOOK HAS THINNEST DISPLAY
PLEASANTON, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 20 (NB) -- What may be the
Porsche of portables has been introduced -- sleek, black $3,695 to $5,795
laptop PCs called Dynabooks, only 1. 7-inches thick when closed.

The first product of start-up Dynabook Technologies, the machines were
introduced at PC Expo in New York. The Dynabook weighs 6. 4 pounds,
is the size of a thin portfolio, has a supertwist, blue electroluminescent,
non-glare backlit liquid crystal display (LCD) screen which is only a third
of an inch thick -- the thinnest on the market. The LCD is 11 inches
diagonally.

The microprocessor is a 16 megahertz 80C286 chip from Intel, the
system comes with VGA graphics, an optional 2400 baud modem, and an
optional math coprocessor. The motherboard, keyboard, hard disk
drive in 20 and 40 megabyte configurations are modular. There are nine
I/O ports, two serial ports, and a parallel port.

The unit will get market saturation immediately. Computerland has
agreed to distribute the system and has placed an initial order for $5
million worth of units, the largest initial order ever given by the retail
chain to a single new vendor. Ninety Computerland stores in the U.S. will
get the product initially.

While the name Dynabook conjures up the versatile hand-held tool
conceived by Alan Kay at Xerox in the 70's, this Dynabook is not designed
to fulfill Kay's dream. In fact, neither Xerox nor Kay ever registered the
name as a trademark, according to Vinod Khosla, president of Dynabook
Technologies. Dynabook Technologies, however, has.

(Wendy Woods/19890623/Press Contact: Melanie Fuzie -- pronounced
Fewz-ee -- Dynabook, 415-847-0660)


(NEWS)(IBM)(WAS)(00004)

IBM ADDS A/V
WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1989 JUNE 20 (NB) -- In a spate
of new product announcements at PC Expo in New York, IBM has
introduced two new expansion boards for its Micro Channel
computers that greatly expand their audio and video capabilities.

From its initial introduction IBM had stressed that MCA, the
Micro Channel Architecture, offered capabilities beyond those of
the ISA or Industry Standard Architecture popularly known as the
PC and AT bus, but until recently few products have made use of
these capabilities.

The $2,250 IBM PS/2 Video Capture Adapter/A is an MCA-only
adapter card that can accept single analog pictures from many
sources, including video tape recorders, video still or movie
cameras, and video disk players.

The adapter card, which fits in the 16-bit video expansion slot
found in every PS/2 above the Model 50, converts the signal to
digital form so it can be modified.

The $565 Audio Capture/Playback Adapter, available for both MCA
and ISA computers, converts audio input to digital form for
editing and compression.

According to IBM's Andy Russel, both of these adapter cards are
intended to be used with the new AVC multimedia language and
application development software which sells for $495. Together
the three products allow the development of audio, video, and
text presentations for training or other uses.

(John McCormick/19890622/Press Contact: Andy Russell, 914-642-
5463)


(NEWS)(IBM)(WAS)(00005)

LOTUS SHIPS!
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 20 (NB) -- Lotus
Development has announced at the New York PC Expo that the long-
awaited new MS-DOS and OS/2 upgrade to Lotus' popular spreadsheet
is finally shipping.

Reportedly, the new release makes major improvements in database
capabilities, data analysis, printing, and graphics, also adding
full network support, external data access capabilities, and
easier customization.

Lotus 1-2-3 Release 3 runs in the protected mode and will need a
minimum of an 80286-based computer with one megabyte, or 1 MB, of
memory under MS-DOS and 3 MB minimum for the OS/2 version. Users
can access up to 16 MB of extended memory directly, in addition
to 8 MB of expanded random access memory, or RAM, using the
Lotus/Intel/Microsoft Expanded Memory Specification 3.2, and up
to 32 MB of RAM using LIM 4.0.

Many of the enhancements in the new $595 version of 1-2-3 reflect
capabilities already available in other top-of-the-line
spreadsheets, including the ability to work three-dimensionally,
link up to 256 spreadsheets, and work with several files loaded
into memory simultaneously.

Another new feature is the DataLens that lets 1-2-3 spreadsheets
access data stored in dBASE III files as if they were in another
linked spreadsheet. A tool kit for developers will reportedly ship in
the third quarter of this year.

Network versions of Release 3 will be priced at $695 for the
server program and $395 for each node , and the regular DOS and
OS/2 version will be discounted to $495 until the end of this
year.

Foreign language versions of the product will be available in
French, German, Italian, Swedish, Spanish, and Dutch in the third
quarter of this year. Portuguese and Danish versions of the
product will follow in the fourth quarter.

To increase the ease of porting Lotus spreadsheet products to
other computers, the newest version of 1-2-3 was coded in the C
programming language which runs on nearly every computer and was
the language used to create Unix. This should make Lotus' stated
intent to market versions of 1-2-3 for a wide range of computers
easier to accomplish.

Lotus plans to deliver 1-2-3 Release 2.2, a straightforward
upgrade of the current Release 2.01, later this year. This is a
smaller version which would run on any PC compatible computer
with 640 kilobytes of memory. Version 1-2-3/G is also being
developed to take advantage of OS/2's Presentation Manager
graphics capabilities, but that version will require a minimum of
4-5 MB of RAM and full VGA graphics capabilities because OS/2 PM
requires a great deal of memory itself.

Lotus' dominance of the business spreadsheet market has recently
been challenged by superior programs like SuperCalc 5, which
shipped last year with most of the newly released Lotus product
and maintained complete Lotus compatibility while enhancing
nearly every aspect of the traditional spreadsheet. Other major
competitors are Microsoft's Excel and Borland's Quattro, which
take entirely new directions in spreadsheet development.

The success of the new versions of Lotus 1-2-3 are vital to the
company's financial health, since, although Lotus offers a range
of graphics, word processing personal information management, and
integrated programs, more than 60 percent of its income comes from
sales of its spreadsheets.

(John McCormick/19890620/Press Contact: Susan Earabino, 617-
225-1281, or Alexandra Trevelyan, 617-225-1580)


(NEWS)(IBM)(WAS)(00006)

IBM GOES TO 486
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1989 JUNE 20 (NB) -- IBM has beat
all other U.S.-based computer makers to the punch by announcing
an Intel 80486-based computer, upgraded from the 33MHz PS/2 Model
70-A21 desktop computer.

The replacement processor board, designated the IBM PS-2 486-25
Power Platform, takes the place of the small processor board in
the $11,000-plus Model 70. The new processor operates at only
25MHz, but because of special features of the new chip the
machine will perform at least twice as fast as 33MHz 80386-based
computers now on the market.

The price of the Power Platform will be about $4,000 (not
counting the required Model 70-A21) and the adapter will ship in
the fourth quarter of this year, according to IBM's Linda Dezan.

By entirely skipping the 33MHz step for 80386 computers, IBM has
jumped past all its domestic competition with the first announced
U.S. 80486-based computer, coming just one week after U.K.-based
Apricot announced an i486 machine.

In a related move, the price of the 25MHz 80386-based PS/2 Model
70-A21 will be reduced from $11,295 to $8,999.

The recently announced Intel i486 chip makes use of limited
Reduced Instruction Code architecture, increased command and data
buffers, and built-in floating point coprocessor to provide
performance two to four times faster than even 33MHz i386
computers.

(John McCormick/19890620)


(EXCLUSIVE)(IBM)(SFO)(00007)

BROWN BAG FILE XFER
CAMPBELL, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 24 (NB) -- Brown Bag Software
is releasing its first non-shareware program in years, a $130 file
transfer program called PC Hook-Up. The product, which works on
MS-DOS machines, comes with a cable, and transfers data between serial
and parallel connectors on computers. It includes a communications
program which allows you to dial up other computers and attain remote
file access, and a limited text editor.

The program is designed for exchanging data between remote computers
which are both equipped with PC Hook-Up, or between PCs in an office
which may have dissimilar disk sizes.

To order, phone Brown Bag toll free in California, call 800-323-5335
or (toll) 408-559-4545. The national toll-free number is 800-523-0764.

(Wendy Woods/19890623)


(NEWS)(IBM)(LAX)(00008)

TOSHIBA DROPS PRICES
TUSTIN, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 22 (NB) -- Toshiba has
reduced the prices on nine of its 12 portable personal computers.
The company has also cut the price of its optional 2 megabyte memory
module for the Model T5200.

Toshiba already holds 22.1 percent of the market according to
figures from Dataquest [a research firm in San Jose, CA]. No
particular reason for these price changes was given.

One unit on which Toshiba has not lowered the price is the T1600
that has been in hot demand and short supply. The T1600's
popularity stems from an abundance of features, both standard and
optional available with this computer. Company literature
describes the T1600 as the most powerful battery operated unit in
the Toshiba line of portables and also notes that the screen is
detachable so the CPU can be used with a full size monitor in
desktop applications.

(Janet Endrijonas/19890623/Press Contact: Gerry Lynne Baker, Les
Goldberg Public Relations, 714-730-4774)


(NEWS)(IBM)(LAX)(00009)

LYTE-BYTE 3400 SHIPS
SANTA ANA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 22 (NB) -- Micro
Express is shipping its Lyte-Byte 3400 portable computer.

The Lyte-Byte is a 286-based system running at 16 MHz. It comes
standard with 1 Mbyte of RAM upgradable to 4 Mbytes. The system
includes a 1.44 Mbyte floppy disk drive, a 40 Mbyte hard drive,
two serial and one parallel port. The unit weights 15 lbs.

Micro Express has also released a 386 portable to add to its line
of desktop and portable computers. The four-year-old company
sells direct to end users. Sales manager Lori Barragato
explained to Newsbytes that Micro Express keeps their retail
prices down to a level that would not afford a dealer much profit
margin and they intend to continue this policy.

(Janet Endrijonas/19890623/Press Contact: Lori Barragato, Micro
Express, 714-662-1973)


(NEWS)(IBM)(WAS)(00010)

NETWORK SYMPHONY SHIPS
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 22 (NB) -- A network
version of the Lotus integrated software Symphony Release 2.0 is
now available, according to Cambridge, Mass.-based Lotus
Development Corp.

Standard, Server, and Node versions all use the same core code
for compatibility, but the Server Edition has features that
manage shared files and includes a network administrator's guide
along with complete program documentation.

Server Edition costs $795 and comes with both 5.25- and 3.5-inch
disks. The Node Edition lists for $495, while the Standard
Edition, for one user, is $695, with various upgrade discounts.

(John McCormick/19890623/Press Contact: Philip A. Greenough, 617-
577-8500)


(NEWS)(IBM)(WAS)(00011)

DEC EXPANDS LINE
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1989 JUNE 20 (NB) -- Maynard,
Massachusetts-based Digital Equipment Corporation chose PC Expo
as the place to announce expanded support for PC-based computers.

The package of announcements included multivendor support,
computer integration products, new PC computer options, new
advertising and marketing support for Digital's vendors, and a
strategic alliance with Toshiba.

A group of four new service packages, called Desktop Service
Solutions, will provide customized hardware, software and network
support from start-up to maintenance and integration for DEC,
Novell, and 3Com local area networks.

The PCLAN/Server 3100 is a hardware and software system optimized
for work groups linking up to 48 computers in local or wide area
networks, priced starting at $12,500 for a 104 MB hard disk
server.

New options for the DECstation 210, 316, and 320 PCs include
multi-national character set keyboards, 16-bit VGA graphics card,
and 20 MB IDE hard disk drives and controller.

Although these announcements indicate an increased support for
desktop-based solutions and show a recognition of the need for
integrated, one-vendor solutions to networking problems, the
hardware introductions, including a 12 MHz 80286-based DECstation
212, are not generally seen as remarkable.

(John McCormick/19890622/Press Contact: Linda Simon, 508-
493-1168, or Nick Houpis, 508-870-3285)


(NEWS)(IBM)(WAS)(00012)

NEW ENABLE E-MAIL
ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1989 JUNE 12 (NB) -- The first LAN-
based scheduling system supporting multiple file servers, remote
LANs, and individual e-mail users who don't maintain personal on-
line calendars was announced today by Enable Software's Higgins
Group.

According to Enable, the new module uses a variety of automated
e-mail features to integrate and support distributed and project-
based work group productivity.

Enable, a privately held company, has an installed base of
300,000 for its integrated software package, Enable/OA, mostly in
the federal government.

Higgins, which supplies an integrated office e-mail system,
scheduling, and groupware software, was acquired by Enable
Software in February of this year.

(John McCormick/19890622/Press Contact: Connie Baker, Enable
Software, 703-379-7100, or Margaret Peters, 203-972-1201)


(NEWS)(IBM)(ATL)(00013)

CASE TOOLS LINKED
ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 20 (NB) -- McDonnell
Douglas announced an interface between its ProKit Workbench, a
front-end computer aided software engineering, or CASE tool, with
the latest version of Cross System Product, IBM's application
generator. The new version of the IBM product is the first to
allow such an interface with third-party products. It's the
application generator component of IBM's Systems Application
Architecture, which lets programs work with all IBM hardware and
software architectures and operating systems.

The new interface will be available in the third quarter, or when
IBM ships the latest version of Cross System Product. McDonnell
Douglas, an airplane manufacturer and defense contractor, also
owns the Tymnet packet network.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19890623/Press Contact: Sheila Noonan,
McDonnell Douglas Information Systems Co., 314-233-5371)


(NEWS)(IBM)(LAX)(00014)

PLUG 'N PLAY FROM CMS
TUSTIN, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 22 (NB) -- CMS
Enhancements Inc. has introduced 40- and 65-Mbyte plug-and-play
hard disk subsystems for the IBM PS/2 Model 50.

The design of these subsystems permits connection directly to the
computer's Micro Channel hard drive controller, therefore
eliminating the need to use up an expansion slot.

CMS is also marketing the CMS Model 25 Kit that offers an upgrade
solution allowing the use of the 20 Mbyte hard disk that comes
with the PS/2 Model 50 to be used in a PS/2 Model 25.

(Janet Endrijonas/19890623/Press Contact: Diana Biondo, CMS
Enhancements Inc., 714-259-5888)


(NEWS)(IBM)(LON)(00015)

FILE SHUTTLE IN THE U.K.
LEICESTER, ENGLAND, 1989 JUNE 23 (NB) -- Skye Industries has
secured the U.K. distribution rights to Get-C Software's File
Shuttle package. The U.K.P 80 package allows files to be ported
between DOS-based PCs at very high speeds.

According to Bryan Neal, managing director of Skye Industries,
File Shuttle incorporates three languages - English, French and
German - and can move files at up to three megabytes [MB] a minute.
"File Shuttle's many new features make it the fastest, most cost-
effective and easiest to use method on the market for transferring files
from one IBM or DOS-compatible desktop of laptop computer, regardless
of what version of the DOS operating system either computer is running,
and without any setup or configuration required," said Neal.

(Steve Gold/19890623/Press Contact: Bryan Neal, Tel: [phone])


(NEWS)(IBM)(SYD)(00016)

AUSTRALIAN '386 DEBUTS
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1989 JUNE 23 (NB) -- Competing head-on with
Taiwanese, Japanese and American manufacturers, Hypertec, an
Australian company, has released a high-speed 33MHz 80386 PC. It
has a tower case, one megabyte of random access memory (RAM), 40 to
700 megabyte hard disks, and very fast static column cache RAM. The
machine is only unusual in that Australia is currently experiencing very
unfavorable balance of trade results and the machine may be seen as
a way of reducing imports of expensive computer equipment.

(Paul Zucker/19890623/Hypertec Contact ph. 61-2-8083666)


(NEWS)(IBM)(KUL)(00017)

MALAYSIAN 80386
KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA, 1989 JUN 15 (NB) -- Microcomputer Systems
Sdn Bhd [MSSB], described as one of Malaysia's most dynamic computer
manufacturers, has come up with a cheaper version of the latest
80386-based machine.

The MSSB version, the Optima 386SX, to be officially launched at the
end of the month, uses the 80386SX chip, which is cheaper than the
original 80386 microprocessor, but powerful enough to run the
instruction set of the more expensive chip.

Available after June 30, the Optima 386SX package comes with an
extended keyboard of 101 keys, 1 megabyte (MB) of RAM, a dual-mode
green monitor, a dual-mode Hercules and CGA graphics card and a 1.2 MB
floppy disk drive at a cost of M$5,300 [US$1,950].

(Michael Worsley & S.Roowi/19890619/Press Contact:Lim Eng Hai, Sales
Manager, Microcomputer Systems Sales, Ph:60-3-248.6655, Fx:60-3-
248.6657)


(NEWS)(IBM)(SIN)(00018)

INTERIOR DESIGN SOFTWARE
SINGAPORE, S.E. ASIA, 1989 MAY 28 (NB) -- Furni Tec design has
developed a software package to help contractors specializing in
interior design and renovation projects for homeowners.

Used on an IBM or compatible computer, plus a graphics tablet, the new
software package takes the basic floor plan and combined with various
design ideas, helps develop the ideal result for the client.

The company is now providing this basic computerized design service to
its own customers, and would be willing to consider providing the
software package to non-competing companies outside of Singapore,
although no price was quoted, as it is likely to depend on what
changes are required, if any, to adapt the package to differing
building design codes in force in different parts of the world.

(Michael Worsley & Joseph Ming/19890606/Press Contact: Mr Chua, Furni
Tec Design Pte. Ltd., Ph:[65] 255.5704)


(NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00019)

IBM TO SELL PERFORM
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1989 JUN 20 (NB) -- Delrina Technology
has signed a deal with IBM Canada to produce an IBM-labelled
version of PerFORM, its MS-DOS forms processing software. IBM
Canada, its American parent and other IBM companies get worldwide
distribution rights.

IBM PerFORM Designer and Filler 2.0 will sell for C$354. IBM
PerFORM Filler 2.0, without forms design capabilities, will cost
C$150. The IBM PerFORM Filler Networking Package will cost C$840.
IBM and Delrina have also signed a statement of direction to work
on an OS/2 Presentation Manager version of PerFORM.

(Grant Buckler/19890622/Press Contact: Stan Didzbalis, IBM
Canada, 416-474-3036; Bert Amato, Delrina, 416-423-0456)


(NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00020)

COREL DRAW UPDATED
OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1989 JUN 22 (NB) -- Corel Systems has
announced Version 1.1 of its Corel Draw grpahics package. The new
version, to be available in July, supports the clipboard in
Microsoft Windows and imports and exports Computer Graphics
Metafile [CGM] files. It also offers 45 new typefaces, bringing
the total to 102. A typeface conversion program called WFNBOSS
allows use of Agfa Compugraphic, Altsys Fontographer, Bitstream,
Digi-Fonts, The Font Company, HP Compugraphic Type Director and
Z-soft Type Foundry typefaces as well.

THe new release is priced at US$595. Registered users can obtain
upgrades direct from Corel for US$99. Corel Draw runs under
Microsoft Windows on all 80286- and 80386-based PCs with at least
640K bytes of random-access memory.

(Grant Buckler/19890623/Press Contact: Arlen Bartsch, Corel, 613-
738-8200)


(EXCLUSIVE)(TELECOM)(SFO)(00001)

VIA SHOW HIGHLIGHTS
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 23 (NB) -- While by all
accounts the videotex industry is still in its embryonic stage, the
baby's face is already visible and the largest and smallest players
are lining up like chromosomes. "We'll see 2-3 digit growth rates
for videotex in the next few years," said Bill Louden of GEnie, one
of the conference speakers, whose optimism reflected the mood at the
Videotex Industry Association's meeting June 19-21 in San Francisco.

Almost three hundred attended this year's event to hear the latest
projections, distribution schemes, and technology designed to implement
this newest form of information access.

Centrally located on the show floor were some of the regional Bell
operating companies (RBOCs) which will offer gateway services to a myriad
of smaller "service agencies" acting as hosts for a variety of new
online services.

The RBOCs -- Southwestern Bell, Bell South, Nynex, U.S. West -- have
tied up with Minitel to offer the service through their gateways.
Minitel, the joint venture formed by Infonet and France Telecom, is
attempting to duplicate its success in the French market here in
the U.S. by going online everywhere it can and by hooking up with the
best-heeled players. One way it's getting in the door is by giving away the
source code for its Teletel protocol to all the regional Bells in
hopes that it will lead to wider acceptance of its form of videotex.

Minitel's aggressive sales force is scouring available information
services, attempting to entice new and old ones onto its U.S. MinitelNet,
which is also linked with four million Minitel users in France.
Minitel is offering a Marketing Agent program which offers agents
a $1,000 reward for each service provider joining the Minitel team
and a . 35 commission per user hour generated for as long as marketing
agent status is maintained -- a program which shows that the company
is out to win. MinitelNet, based at 1700 Broadway, New York City,
has 10,000 information services online -- most of them in France --
and claims to have shipped out 5,000 Minitel emulators to PC owners
in the U.S. who want to get online. A Macintosh version is due shortly.

Phillips, a major vendor of Minitel terminals for end-users, announced
that it was selected by U.S. West to provide 4,000 terminals for the phone
company's Omaha, Nebraska CommunityLink -- a Minitel videotex gateway
which has enlisted the support of that city's civic and church
organizations. CommunityLink is expected to be online in the fall
with 100 information services and 7,500 users by the start of 1990.

Other vendors of Minitel-compatible hardware and software -- Servotel
of Palo Alto, California, and Baseline of New York City, among others --
were selling the systems to put an information provider online,
dedicated servers in the neighborhood of $12,000 each.

(Wendy Woods. 19890623/Press Contact: Joe Mazzeo, Minitel, 914-694-6266)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(SFO)(00002)

QUANTUM WINS TOP VIA AWARD
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 19 (NB) -- Quantum Computer
Services, which offers Applelink, PC-Link, Q-Link, and TandyLink, has
won the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Videotex Industry
Association. The Vienna, Virginia-based Quantum was chosen for its
pioneering efforts, leadership, and success over the years.

Prodigy Services won the Videotex Innovation Award for its network
architecture, which places the burden of running the interactive
service both in the user's PC as well as regional system servers,
rather than a centralized mainframe.

The Distinguished Service Award went to Hilary Thomas, president
of Minitel USA. She has served on the executive board of the Videotex
Industry Association since 1985 and is credited with achieving
the organization's most important successes:modifying the antitrust
rules of the seven Regional Holding Companies, preventing the
establishment of computer access charges in the U.S. , conducting the
Gateway 2000 research, and building the VIA's annual conference as
the videotex conference for North America.

The Videotex Industry Association is based in Rosslyn, Virginia.

(Wendy Woods/19890623)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(SFO)(00003)

PRODIGY HAS 50,000 SUBSCRIBERS
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 19 (NB) -- The Prodigy
Information Service has 50,000 subscribers and is now in 14 markets.
David Waks, director of technology for the joint IBM/Sears venture,
says the service will increase its subscription base to "six
digits soon and is moving along nicely. "It will be some time,
however, before the venture begins to make money.

Speaking to the Videotex Industry Association's conference in
San Francisco, Waks says Prodigy has picked up steam in New York
City, and has doubled its market penetration from the seven
cities in which the service was offered last year.

(Wendy Woods/19890623)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00004)

TELECOM REFORM COMING
OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1989 JUN 19 (NB) -- The Canadian
government will soon introduce legislation aimed at unifying this
country's fragmented telecommunications market and setting
minimum levels of Canadian ownership. Speaking at the Canadian
Satellite Users' Conference here, Minister of Communications
Marcel Masse said telecommunications policy is vital to Canada's
future in an information-oriented world, and changes are long
overdue. "I find it ironic if not worrisome," he said, "that
despite all the radical changes occurring in the information age,
the last major overhaul of our telecommunications legislation
occurred in 1904."

Masse said the government intends to establish a maximum of 20
percent foreign ownership of telecommunications carriers that
operate "international and interprovincial" networks. This would
bring Canadian policy in line with those of major trading
partners, the United States and Japan. Masse also said the
federal government will seek a power of "forbearance:" the right
to order deregulation of certain aspects of telecommunications
across the country.

At the moment, Ottawa has control of telecommunications
regulation only in the provinces of Quebec, Ontario and British
Columbia and in the Northwest Territories, while other provinces
regulate their own carriers. The provincial regulators have been
slower than the federal regulatory body, the Canadian Radio-
television and Telecommunications Commission, to allow
competition, connection of customer-owned equipment and other
loosening of the rules. "This refusal has considerably limited
the choice of services and equipment available in the Prairies
and the Maritimes," Masse said, echoing the views of numerous
government and private-sector studies.

Masse said the upcoming legislation will also seek to give the
federal cabinet a clear power of direction over the CRTC. He
added that the government will shortly publish proposals for new
rules on the use of satellite earth stations to pick up signals
from foreign satellites. He stopped short of promising
competition in long-distance voice service, however. "The
question of levels of competition and of choice of services
available across the country is totally distinct from the more
specific one of introducing competition in long-distance
telephone service," the minister said.

Further reduction in government ownership of telecommunications
carriers could also be on the way. The Toronto Star quoted Masse
as saying, in an interview following his speech, that its half of
domestic satellite carrier Telesat Canada might be sold. The
current Progressive Conservative government has sold all or part
of a handful of Crown corporations, including international
satellite carrier Teleglobe Canada.

(Grant Buckler/19890619/Press Contact: Paul Villeneuve,
Department of Communications, 613-990-4842)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00005)

DATA RADIO HITS TORONTO
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1989 JUN 20 (NB) -- Toronto is the
first Canadian city to get a radio data communications system.
MobiData Communications, based in Montreal, has announced a
mobile data communications service allowing portable terminals
and computers to transmit data without wires. The system is
similar to the Data Radio Network operated by Motorola in the
United States, and will have links to that network. MobiData is a
joint venture by Motorola and BCE Mobile Communications of
Montreal.

Service is currently available in Toronto, and is expected to
start in Montreal by September. By the end of 1990, MobiData says
it will be serving Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa and
Quebec City.

At present, only portable data terminals can use the system, but
MobiData said radio-frequency modems will be available by next
year that will allow ordinary portable computers or any other
terminal device to be connected.

(Grant Buckler/19890622/Press Contact: Cheryl Ferguson or Gerald
Crowell, Langdon Starr Public Relations, 416-480-0533)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00006)

MCI, IBM UNDER X.400
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 21 (NB) -- MCI
Mail and the IBM Information Network's Screenmail electronic mail
service will be connected under the X.400 message handling
standard, the two companies announced. The connection will be
rolled out slowly, first to the U.S. aerospace industry.
Eventually, customers of the IBM Information Network will be able
to exchange electronic messages with subscribers of MCI Mail and
with each network's interconnected systems, including PCs, local
area networks, and office automation systems.

The agreement marks the first X.400 interconnection between the
IBM Information Network and another carrier.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19890623/Press Contact: Jane Levene, MCI
International, 914-934-6480)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(WAS)(00007)

X.400 GATEWAY
SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 JUNE 2O (NB) -- The X.400
Application Program Interface Association, or APIA, has announced
the industry's first vendor-independent application program
interface, or API, the X.400 Gateway API.

Standards are vital to the computer community and the X.400 APAI,
founded in December of 1988, with 21 international members,
strives to coordinate the development of common e-mail interface
standards.

Parties interested in obtaining a printed copy of the standards
definition for connecting X.400 with proprietary e-mail systems
should contact Dave Knight at Retix, 213-399-2200, or Stephen
Layne at Telenet, 703-689-5476.

(John McCormick/19890622)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00008)

DIALCOM TESTS X.400
ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 20 (NB) -- Dialcom and
Soft-Switch announced the completion of joint testing and
certification between Dialcom's Pathfinder /X.400 program and
Soft-Switch's recently announced X.400 Gateway. John Morris,
chairman of Dialcom Inc., said, "Dialcom is committed to
worldwide growth of electronic mail through market driven
interconnection where business needs exist."

Soft-Switch President Michael D. Zisman said the tests were part
of a continuing certification effort for his company, which is a
leading provider of enterprise mail networking products, and
licensor to major office system vendors and public electronic
mail systems.

Separately a Soft-Switch competitor, Sydney Development Corp. of
Vancouver, British Columbia, filed for bankruptcy protection
against its creditors.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19890623/Press Contact: David Burd, Dialcom
301-881-9020)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00009)

GERMAN VIDEOTEX TO U.S.
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 20 (NB) -- Infonet
announced network support to bring Bildschirmtext (Btx), West
Germany's Videotex Service, to the United States. Btx services
will be provided via Infonet's worldwide data communications
network. Detecon, a subsidiary of the Deutsche Bundespost, is
responsible for implementation and management of the project,
which represents the first Btx link between Germany and the
United States. Btx is the largest commercial videotex service
worldwide. Btx provides more than 660,000 pages of information
and over 320 additional external computers. There are about
170,000 Btx users in West Germany today.

U.S. locations of German corporations will utilize the Btx
service for messaging, store and forward applications and to
access business information databases, especially electronic mail
services, between Germany and the United States. Infonet is
jointly owned by Computer Sciences Corp. and the
telecommunications administrations of major European and Asian
Pacific countries, including West Germany.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19890623/Press Contact: Mike Timmins, Infonet,
201-487-6200)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00010)

SABRE DEAL WITH DELTA OFF
DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 22 (NB) -- After objections were
raised on antitrust grounds by the U.S. Justice Department,
American Airlines and Delta Airlines have scrapped their plan to
merge their online reservations systems, Sabre and Datas II.

In January, Delta had agreed to pay American $650 million for half
of the Sabre system, which has an estimated 35 percent share of the
travel reservations market. The two companies had been
unsuccessful in getting other airlines to join their venture,
however, and recently dropped their asking price from the $15
million per share point paid by Delta to $13 million per share
point.

The loss of the deal may help Delta in the short-run, bringing
back $650 million, but analysts said it's left "high and dry"
because Datas II has only a 9 percent market share, and that's falling.
Two primary competitors to Sabre, United's Apollo and Texas Air's
SystemOne, have opened ownership to other airlines in deals
similar to that proposed by Delta and American. Airlines
overseas have also been joining their reservations systems, most
notably through the Ababus group in Southeast Asia. Figures
compiled by Airline Economics in August 1988 showed Apollo with a
23 percent market share and SystemOne with an 18 percent share. The
PARS system run by TWA and Northwest has a 15 percent market share,
and analysts expect Delta to seek an agreement with it.

Separately, American announced it has agreed to outfit Sabre
users with 80386-based PCs and local area networks. The airline
itself will buy AT&T equipment for its InterAAct network in what
AT&T Data Systems Group Execucitve Robert M. Kavner called a
"very significant contract." Contracts for up to 50,000
workstations were let to AT&T, IBM, and Tandy. The equipment will
be installed over the next two years.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19890623/Press Contact: John Hotard, American
Airlines, 817-963-2010)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00011)

BELL LABS BACKS NAT'L DATA HIWAY
SHORT HILLS, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1989, JUNE 21 (NB) -- In testimony
before the U.S. Senate, a Bell Labs official supported Senator Albert Gore's
move to create a national data highway, like the interstate highway
system once supported by his father, under the High Performance
Computer Technology Act of 1989. Robert W. Lucky, executive director of
research in the communications sciences division of AT&T Bell
Laboratories, said that availability of such services would promote
scientific research and collaboration and would help make U.S. technology
more competitive.

The proposed legislation, introduced as Senate Bill 1067, authorizes $1.75
billion over the next five years to expand federal government support for
research, development and use of supercomputers, artificial intelligence,
computer networks and other advanced computer technology. Lucky
admitted that computer networks today "are not interconnected and it is
often impossible to send information between any two systems," adding
that computers also require much faster transmission speeds than does
voice communication.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19890623/Press Contact: Donna Cunningham, AT&T
Bell Laboratories, 201-564-4242)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(SFO)(00012)

LASER IS PLAIN-PAPER FAX WITH JETFAX
REDWOOD CITY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 23 (NB) -- Plain paper fax
machines, which do not use the hardwood thermal paper of the cheaper
varieties, are expensive -- in the $6,000 to $10,000 range. But a
start-up company has a device which will output incoming faxes to
a Hewlett-Packard LaserJet or compatible laser printer, and if the
printer is busy, will store up to 60 fax pages in memory. If the fax
machine is still busy when the JetFax memory is full, it will pass
along the fax transmission to the attached fax machine.

The JetFax, $1195, stores up to 64 telephone numbers,
has an image reduction feature which allows a fax to be reduced up to
12 percent in size, and can be programmed to call out to receive faxes
at user-specified times. In addition, it can print as fast as a
fax is being received at 9600 baud from CCITT Group 3 fax
machines.

The JetFax shares a single telephone line for receiving faxes on the
laser printer and sending faxes from an attached fax machine.

According to the company, Hybrid Fax of Redwood City, Ca. , Charlton
Heston, the actor, is among the first customers. He uses his to
receive scripts.

(Wendy Woods/19890623/Press Contact: Lori Waggener Evens, 415-369-0609)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(SFO)(00013)

SENIORNET GETS $25,000 GRANT
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 20 (NB) -- SeniorNet,
a project designed to involve seniors in the information revolution,
has received a $25,000 grant from Pacific Bell in order to build
informational kiosks around the country. Spokeswoman Shelley Herron
tells Newsbytes that the kiosks, which would offer access to the
online SeniorNet telecommunications network, are in their beginning
stage, but are envisioned for more than the 25 sites where SeniorNet
centers are now established. The kiosks are envisioned as "pay
phones of the information age. "

SeniorNet, based in the University of San Francisco, offers
personal computer training to seniors as well as a computerized
conferencing system offered as a part of Delphi. The project has
also won the support of Apple Computer. SeniorNet can be reached
by calling 415-666-6505.

(Wendy Woods/19890623/Press Contact: Shelley Herron, 415-666-6505)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(SFO)(00014)

GROCERS GO ONLINE
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 23 (NB) -- With more and
more grocery stores expected to cater directly to the buyer with
videotex, a software/hardware company has designed a system that will
give them entry into this market. Menutronics has unveiled software/
hardware package with the lengthy name of Shopping, Ordering and Delivery
Fulfillment System. The system has undergone testing in the Kansas
City area since 1979, and was developed by Guaranteed Foods, a home
delivery grocery company in Lenaxa, Kansas. Menutronics is licensing
the system as a database/service bureau to support electronic
home shopping ventures.

(Wendy Woods/19890623/Press Contact: Tom Williams, Menutronic, 913-
894-MENU)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00015)

DATASTAR ADDS DATABASE
WAYNE, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 8 (NB) -- Data-Star, a
database service of Radio-Suisse, has added the Turing Institute
Database on artificial intelligence to its list of offerings. The
database offers current information on artificial intelligence,
expert and knowledge-based systems, machine learning, vision and
image processing, pattern recognition, human-computer interaction,
cognitive modeling, advanced robotics, connectionism and neural
networks, AI hardware, programming languages and
software, as well as theorem proving.

The institute, founded at Glasgow, Scotland in 1983, has 16,000 articles,
16,000 conference papers, 9,000 reports from 200 research institutes,
and 9,000 monographs, textbooks, and collected works.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19890623/Press Contact: DataStar, 215-687-6777)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00016)

ONLINE ACCESS TO FNN
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 14 (NB) -- The Business
Wire, an online public relations newswire, is now offering access
to the on-screen ticker of the Financial News Network outside
trading hours. Deborah Pickering of Business Wire told Newsbytes
companies can now have press release headlines broadcast on the
ticker, which runs at the bottom of the financial cable channel's
screen, before trading opens from 6-9:45 AM and after it closes
from 4-8 PM, for $150 per appearance. The service is called
Investors News Release Watch.

Earlier this year, Business Wire signed a joint marketing
agreement with First Call Corporate Release to distribute press
releases to over 440 institutions worldwide, and an exclusive
agreement with Pont Data to deliver corporate press releases to
425 international investment firms. All these products are
designed to satisfy the "timely disclosure" requirements of the
stock market regulators for news on public companies.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19890623/Press Contact: Deborah E. Pickering,
Business Wire, 212-575-8822)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00017)

AT&T TO SHARE PC FAXES
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 21 (NB) -- AT&T announced
PagePower Release 2.1 and a new version of its Fax Connection
board to give PC users the ability to share fax resources on a
StarLAN local area network. The combination eliminates the need
for multiple fax boards and telephone lines. PagePower also
allows users to easily create high-quality graphics images for
faxing to any PC or fax machine in the world. PagePower is a
menu-driven graphics package operating under Microsoft Windows
that lets you create graphic images and send them to other PCs or
fax machines using the AT&T Fax Connection board. PagePower
receives messages in a background mode on all AT and XT-based
PCs. PagePower 2.1 costs $395 and will be available next month.
PagePower 2.1 and the AT&T Fax Connection purchased together cost
$1,295.

AT&T also announced a new add-in card for the AT&T 6286 and 6386
WorkGroup System computers called the AT&T Intelligent Ports
Card-900 with a new design to make connecting printers and modems
quick and easy.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19890623/Press Contact: Jim McGann, AT&T, 201-
221-5062)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00018)

SHARP'S GLOBAL NETWORK
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1989 JUN 20 (NB) -- Sharp will build a massive
communications network to link production, sales and development
facilities in 41 countries and 60 cities. Called the Sharp
Global Network, the system will have four main stations located in Japan,
the U.S., the U.K., and Singapore. It is slated to go online this
spring. To start, Sharp will use leased lines to create the network
for facsimile, telex, and data communications.

The company is aiming to integrate its entire management information
system within three years, providing all its 60 locations access to
sales, stock confirmation, production, material procurement, computer-
aided design systems, financial and accounting information and electronic
mail.

Since the leased lines will be connected between four main
stations, bypass routes can be taken when the line is busy. The company
expects a 30 percent communication cost reduction when the integrated
network is complete.

(Naoyuki Yazawa/19890620)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00019)

MICROLINK NIXES DIALCOM
ADLINGTON, ENGLAND, 1989 JUN 23 (NB) -- Microlink, the
electronic mail service run on System 72 of Dialcom in the U.K., is
moving over to I-Net, a new network from Istel. The scheduled
switchover date is 1 October, 1989.

For Microlink's 14,000 subscribers, the move will mean a switch
away from a Prime-based computer system to a Tandem-based clone
of the Telemail e-mail system in the US. After the change-over,
Microlink subscribers will still be able to exchange e-mail with
other Dialcom networks, including Telecom Gold subscribers in the
U.K., using a message switch located in the U.S. Subscribers will
also retain their existing mailbox IDs.

Why the switch? "We felt that I-Net offered a better service to
our subscribers than that offered by Telecom Gold [Dialcom],"
Microlink's managing director Derek Meakin told Newsbytes. "I-
Net's facilities include the ability to easily gateway out into
almost any other online service available. We consider this
facility to be of great importance to our subscribers," he added.

Meakin has ambitious plans for Microlink. Over the next 12
months, he anticipates doubling MIcrolink's 14,000 membership,
and opening up a large number of gateways into third-party
networks.

"One key feature is that our subscribers will no longer have to
pay packet-switching costs to access Microlink outside of London.
The I-Net network allows local dial-up over much of the U.K., and
many parts of Europe," said Meakin.

Sources close to I-Net have confirmed that local dial-up
facilities on a near-global basis are planned, allowing
subscribers to log on to Microlink and other I-Net hosts from
wherever they are, at local calling costs.

(Steve Gold/19890623/Press Contact: Derek Meakin, managing
director, Microlink - Tel: [phone])


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00020)

PEOPLELINK'S NEW RATES
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 22 (NB) -- American
Peoplelink [Plink] has revamped its online charging system to
accommodate data transfer charges for subscribers downloading files.
The new charging structure, which came into force last week, will
actually reduce online rates for the majority of Plink's subscribers,
particularly those accessing at 2400 baud and/or via Telenet's PC
Pursuit service.

Previously, Plink charged its subscribers $4-95 an hour outside
of office hours for 300 and 1200 baud access. The new charging
system introduces a $4-50 hourly charge for all speeds from 300 to
2400 baud, plus a low $2-70 per hour rate for PC Pursuit
subscribers. Where data is downloaded using x-modem, a surcharge
of 9 cents per 5K of data is imposed. Subscribers accessing via
PC Pursuit pay 4 cents for 5K of data transmitted.

According to an online statement by Elizabeth McGinnis, president
of Plink, the new charges reflect the increasing costs of
providing service to those subscribers who download large volumes
of data from the Plink special interest groups [SIGs].

(Steve Gold/19890623/Press Contact: Elizabeth McGinnis,
president, American Peoplelink - Tel: [phone])


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00021)

BT'S RATE HIKE EXPLAINED
LONDON, ENGLAND, 1989 JUN 23 (NB) -- As reported previously on
Newsbytes, British Telecom's International Packet Switch Stream
[IPSS] changed the way in which its data calls to non-U.K.
destinations are charged from 1 June. Instead of a time plus data
tariff, data calls are now charged on the basis of data only.

At the rate of U.K.P 7-00 for 1 kilosegment of data transmitted or
received, the new IPSS charges can mean it is cheaper to dial
direct over the PSTN [public switched telephone network] from the
U.K. Newsbytes visited British Telecom International's [BTI's]
London headquarters recently to put the case for the old time
plus data charges. Chris Broomfield, the product manager for
BTI's IPSS services, gave Newsbytes the reasoning behind the new
tariffs.

"The bulk of our customers make fairly short 'bursty' data calls
to the U.S. We have around 6,500 subscribers to IPSS who use the
service. By far the bulk of them make short - typically 30
seconds or less - data calls," he said.

Broomfield revealed that those modem users who do make lengthy
data calls to the U.S. online services, such as Compuserve, and The
Source, are actually in the minority. The minority, however,
are experiencing real charge rises of 100 percent or more. Does
IPSS not care about these people?

"We are monitoring the situation closely, and may come up with a
charging system to suit high volume users within the next year,"
Broomfield conceded.

Newsbytes notes that Mercury Communications' packet switching
service - Mercury 5100 - is now substantially cheaper to use than
IPSS. At U.K.P 5-10 per hour and U.K.P 2-80 per kilosegment of data
transmitted or received, the charges are as much as 50 percent
cheaper than those offered by IPSS

(Steve Gold/19890623/Press Contact: Chris Broomfield,
Product Manager, BTI - Tel: [phone]; Mercury Communications,
Tel: [phone])


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(BRU)(00022)

LUFTHANSA GOES ONLINE
FRANKFURT, WEST GERMANY, 1989 JUN 23 (NB) -- Lufthansa, the West
Germany airline, has switched Mosaik, its electronic data
interchange [EDI] network online. The system allow rapid
dissemination of information between companies that deal with the
airline.

The Mosaik system runs on a Stratus XA-2000 fault-tolerant
computer, and processors data to the EDIFACT [Electronic Data
Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport] standard.
Access to the system is over the public switch telephone network
[PSTN] or via dedicated packet switching circuits.

(Klaus Rosenthal/19890623)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(SYD)(00023)

AMEX ASIAN HUB IN SYDNEY
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1989 JUNE 22 (NB) -- Charge card giant
American Express has announced that by early 1990 it will
complete its move to controlling all Asian data processing from
Sydney, Australia. The move will allow a reduction from four to
one IBM 3090 computer. The Sydney site currently has almost 200
data processors. Satellite systems will include Thailand, New Zealand,
Malaysia, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The company also considered Hong
Kong and Singapore before making the decision to go with Sydney.

(Paul Zucker/19890623)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(KUL)(00024)

TRAVEL SYSTEM: THAI VS. FANTASIA
BANGKOK, THAILAND, 1989 JUN 21 (NB) -- Thai International and
Fantasia are not very happy with each other after an exchange of
words through the local press.

Thai International has not publicly announced the CRS [computerized
reservation system] it has chosen to join, but both the Bangkok Post
and the Nation, two of Thailand's local papers, carried almost
identical reports that European-based CRS Amadeus was the preferred
choice as the Sydney-based Fantasia was a high-risk venture.

As a result of this, Asia Pacific Distributors [APD], Fantasia's
owning company, issued a response from its Bangkok office claiming
that Fantasia still has the best deal for Thailand.

Thai's marketing vice-president, Nares Hovatanakul, was upset over this
response, calling it "highly inappropriate and insulting" and said
further, "We do not need any further advice from Fantasia on what is
best for Thai and for Thailand."

Jim Lucas, APD's manager for Asia, responded with, "We are only
trying to counteract some of the negative things that were being
leaked to the press about us. They are denying that they leaked the
information but when some papers print exactly the same thing, that's
no coincidence. If they don't leak things, we won't respond to them.
We are just protecting our interests."

Parts of ADP's statement that rankled Thai read: "We certainly
appreciate the fact that Thai and many of its staff have close
business and personal links with European airlines but the need today
is to look forward to the future and to Thai's best long-term
interests," and, "I am sure Amadeus has some strengths but they are
certainly not in the Asia-Pacific region."

Nares said that the release of ADP's statement before Thai gave its
formal announcement about its choice showed Fantasia's desperation to
get Thai to join it. He also said that no other CRS has tried so hard
to sway Thai into making a decision in its favour as did Fantasia, and
consequently it is "not creating a lot of sympathy within the
company."

(Michael Worsley & S.Roowi/19890622)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(SIN)(00025)

SINGAPORE BBS INCREASE
SINGAPORE, S.E. ASIA, 1989 JUN 19 (NB) -- With the government's
emphasis on the use of information technology [IT], more people are
beginning to take to bulletin boards, according to a report in The
Straits Times. They are no longer only the domain of hobbyists called
system operators or "sysops" but operated also by computer companies,
government organizations and associations such as the Singapore
Microcomputer Society.

Mr. Yeo Teck Seng, Singapore Trade Development Board's chief executive
officer, was reported as saying, "When we first ran a board from the
EDB [Economic Development Board], the idea was to help popularize the
use of computers and modem. But today, we are positioning bulletin
boards as a source of business and trade information."

Mr. Yeo presently has a successful system called TeleLink with more
than 1,000 users running at the TDB. This system, containing a large
collection of software, facilitates the 24-hour access of databases
holding trade and business information such as details of overseas
markets. It also carries Newsbytes.

(Michael Worsley & S.Roowi/19890620/Press Contact:Mr Oliver Tan, Trade
Development Board, Ph: [65] 271.9388)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00026)

ATI SHIPS MODEM
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1989 Jun 19 (NB) -- ATI Technologies is
now shipping the V.42 2400etc/i internal modem, which provides
Consultative Committee on International Telephone and Telegraph
[CCITT] V.42 error control as well as Microcom Networking
Protocol Level 5 data compression. The new V.42 version will sell
for the same price as earlier 2400etc modems: C$349. ATI is
offering free upgrades to registered users of earlier 2400etc
modems who bought their units between May 1 and August 1 of this
year. Others can get upgrades for US$20 or C$23 by mailing in a
request, with proof of purchase and payment, to ATI at 3761
Victoria Park Ave., Scarborough, Ontario, Canada M1W 3S2. ATI
also said it plans to ship an external version of the modem, the
2400etc/e, in July.

ATI has also announced price reductions of as much as 35 percent
on its family of graphics boards. The price of the VGAWonder 512
has been cut by US$180 to US$519, while the price of the
VGAWonder 256 has dropped US$80 to US$419. The price cuts
coincide with announcement of ATI's VGA Edge, an enhanced
graphics adapter that supports analog as well as digital monitors
and will sell for US$329.

(Grant Buckler/19890623/Press Contact: Marina Schranz, ATI
Technologies, 416-756-0718)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00027)

BELL REFUND ORDERED
OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1989 JUN 22 (NB) -- Canada's largest
telephone company must pay back C$253 million to its customers.
The Supreme Court of Canada has upheld an order issued by the
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
[CRTC] in October, 1986. The CRTC told Bell to pay back the money
after revising an interim rate increase it had granted to Bell.
Refunds are expected to amount to about C$23 for every
residential subscriber and about C$82 for each business
subscriber. The court ruling also establishes the principle that
the federal regulatory body can change interim decisions
retroactively.

(Grant Buckler/19890623/Press Contact: CRTC, 819-997-0313)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00028)

GEMINI LINKS TO TOURS
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1989 JUN 19 (NB) -- Travel agents
linked to the Canadian Gemini airline reservation system can now
have direct online access to tour wholesalers. Wholesalers
already connected to Gemini will allow agents to connect directly
to their computer systems through Gemini to obtain tour
information and enter bookings. Gemini is jointly owned by Air
Canada and Canadian Airlines International.

(Grant Buckler/19890622/Press Contact: Bonnie Wyatt, Gemini
Group, 416-343-1217)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00029)

GENIE HAS ZMODEM
ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 19 (NB) -- GEnie, the second-
largest general purpose online system in the U.S., announced its file
libraries can now be downloaded with the Zmodem protocol. Zmodem
is more efficient than other protocols because does not need to
wait for the PC to acknowledge correct data, eliminating the
biggest delay during file transfers. Zmodem also is capable of
recovering from a line disconnect due to call waiting or line
noise. If the user downloads a partial file, Zmodem allows the
later downloading of only the remainder of the file, rather than
forcing a repeat of the entire download. Plus, it is a batch
protocol. Zmodem users can indicate a list of files to be
downloaded, then let the PC download all the files at once.

Zmodem joins Xmodem, Xmodem-1K, Ymodem, and Ymodem-G as protocols
available to GEnie users. Chuck Forsberg, who wrote the Zmodem
implementation for GEnie, is the author of the Pro-Yam
communications program, the shareware package Zcomm, and the
Zmodem package DSZ.

Separately, GEnie added roundtables on pets, law enforcement, and
hunting and fishing. The pet roundtable will be called Maggie
Mae's PET-NET and Co., and is sponsored Maggie Mae's Gourmet Pet
Products, Inc. of Mountain View, California. The hunting and
fishing roundtable, called the "Old Timers' Hunting and Fishing
RoundTable" will give detailed information on U.S. and Canadian
hunting and fishing trip planning. It will also have clubs on
such things as trapping, coon hunting, field trials, archery,
black powder, and hawking, as well as wild game and fish
recipes. Parts of the law enforcement roundtable, called
A.L.E.R.T., can be used by people not in the field to ask
questions and discuss topics from radar use to gun control,
homicides to donut shops, according to system operator Dave
Flory, a sergeant in the San Jose, California Police Department.
Police who want to get into the private areas of A.L.E.R.T. need
to send a request on departmental letterhead, via regular mail,
to: A.L.E.R.T., c/o San Jose Police Officers Association, 1151
N. 4th Street, San Jose, CA, 95110.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19890623/Press Contact: Steve Haracznak, GEnie,
301-340-4494)


(CORRECTION)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00030)

GENIE 2400 BAUD -- CORRECTION
ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 22 (NB) -- GEnie has corrected
and expanded on a report Newsbytes had last week about its 2400 baud
service. Service was never down, as Newsbytes reported, spokesman Steve
Harasznak said. Instead, the expansion of GEnie's 2400 baud service was
delayed. Genie should be available now in 393 cities.

That's many more cities than the 276 which can get IBM's Information
Network now, and would be the largest commitment to 2400 baud in the
industry. The expansion of GEnie 2400 baud service will be
finished by year-end. Complete deals are due for release next
month.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19890619/Press Contact: Steve Harasznak, GEnie,
301-340-4494)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00001)

FASTEST MACHINE UNVEILED
BEAVERTON, OREGON, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 19 (NB) -- The fastest computer
system in the world is what NCUBE, based here, claims to have made
with its Ncube 2 Scalar Supercomputer. The modular, massively
parallel supercomputer uses 32 to 8,192 processors operating
simultaneously to execute 60 billion instructions per second and 27
billion scalar floating point operations per second -- nine times the
speed of a top-of-the-line Cray Y-MP. The Cray Y-MP also executes 32
billion instructions per second.

The parallel architecture is what allows this unit to operate so fast
and what technical experts expect will be widely adopted by the industry.

But a computer is worthless without software, and this one has one
package in addition to the Unix System 5. 3 operating system -- Oracle of
Belmont, California, announced that it will create a Parallel Server
Architecture version of its popular database management system (DBMS).

Prices start at $495,000 and run up to $30 million. At this price,
there are already 170 customers waiting for delivery, says Ncube.

(Wendy Woods/19890623/Press Contact: Ann Lokey, Angus & Rudin,
415-363-0982)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00002)

U.S. DRAM-MAKING EFFORT
SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 21 (NB) -- In a direct volley
on Japanese dominance of the memory market, seven chipmakers, backed
by the Semiconductor Industry Association, have pitched in money and plan
to offer technical expertise for a new chip-making venture called U.S.
Memories to be based in the U.S. The last two American firms making
memory chips in the U.S. are Texas Instruments and Micron Technologies of
Boise, Idaho; all others have buckled under from the low-cost, high-
volume production in the Far East. America currently makes just 15
percent of the chips used in the $12 billion North American market.

Hewlett-Packard, Intel, IBM, Digital Equipment, Advanced Micro Devices,
LSI Logic and National Semiconductor each contributed $50,000 to the
patriotic venture and are seeking additional partners in order to amass
$1 billion to start the firm. Sanford Kane, formerly vice president
of IBM's General Technology Division, and a leader in the formation of
the SEMATECH technology design consortium, is the group's president.

"The time is right for a collective memory manufacturing in what is truly
a critical technology," said Kane at the news conference. "U.S. Memories
represents a viable reentry vehicle for America to add to its
presence in the DRAM field. "

The group will license IBM's advanced memory design to produce four
megabit dynamic random access memory chips initially, but could go on
to produce other kinds of integrated circuits.

The general feeling is that the alliance will not run into antitrust snags
in Congress unless smaller U.S. firms object and take the matter to court.
The firms have smartly vowed to buy product from U.S. Memories but
will not have access to the proprietary chip-making technology.

(Wendy Woods/19890623/Press Contact: Jeanne Alford, SIA, 408-
973-9973)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00003)

INTEL I786
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1989 JUNE 20 (NB) -- With IBM barely
announcing implementation of the i486 computer chip, David L.
House, Intel's vice president for microcomputer products, told
attendees at Tuesday's PC Expo that the one-inch-square i786 chip
would hold 100 million transistors and would be the heart of
computers that would respond to voice commands.

The chip, which would include four central processors as well as
an artificial intelligence-based user interface, is predicted to
be available by the year 2000, just reaching actual computers by
the turn of the millennium.

Although the comments were of a general nature and not meant to
describe any actual device in detail, the address did shed light
on Intel's general intentions and can be used as a guide to the
future course of the Intel line of processor chips.

(John McCormick/19890620)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00004)

BOSTON'S COMPUTER GUIDES
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 16 (NB) -- Boston-based
Visual Media, Inc. has installed three Walking Distance Locator
kiosks designed to help pedestrians find their way about in
cities. The locator service prints out a free map for pedestrians along
with ads for businesses located near the kiosk location.

The company expects to install its kiosks in 25 cities over the
next three years, with 16 to be installed by year's end.

The kiosks were made by Rock of Ages, a major supplier of
granite, with Latham Brefka Associates of Boston providing the
design concept, graphics, hardware, and software for the system.

(John McCormick/19890622)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00005)

HOTEL ROOM VOICE MAIL
DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 22 (NB) -- A new system from
Northern Telecom makes it possible for hotel guests to have the
advantages of incoming and outgoing voice mail just like at home
or in the office.

The applications package called Hospitality Voice Services is
being used to provide service to 1,400 rooms in the Sheraton
Centre Hotel in Toronto. The system has been developed for
Northern Telecom's Meridian SL-1 digital communication system and
that company's voice messaging system, Meridian Mail, is an
integral part of the application.

Hospitality Voice Services enables hotel guests to retrieve
messages directly no matter where they are. They can leave a
personalized message to greet incoming calls. People leaving and
receiving messages using Hospitality Voice Services have the
advantage of accuracy by eliminating the message taker in the
middle.

The voice mail system helps hotels to operate more efficiently by
putting their own staff on the system and by freeing operators
who normally must take messages to handle additional calls,
especially at peak hours. Hotel guest reaction to the system has
been excellent, even from people who claim to hate answering
machines.

Hospitality Voice Services is currently available. The guest
messaging application will be available commercially in January
1990.

(Janet Endrijonas/19890623/Press Contact: Jeff Benson, Northern
Telecom, 615-734-4335)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00006)

JAPAN: BTRON WORD PROCESSOR DUE
OSAKA, JAPAN, 1989 JUN 22 (NB) -- Matsushita Electric Industries
has announced that it will release a dedicated word processor based on the
original Japanese operating system Business TRON within the year.
Matsushita has already completed a prototype machine, and is
proceeding with practical-level tests, including operation and
performance evaluations. Matsushita views the new word processor as a
high-end model of its Panaword series. The product, if commercialized,
would become the first BTRON-based dedicated word processor.

Matsushita was the chief developer of BTRON and has been trying to
commercialize the technology. The firm claims that BTRON is
superior to MS-DOS, as far as graphic and windowing capabilities are
concerned.

Using as a yardstick the price of Matsushita's current high-end model of
Panaword -- 158,000 yen [$11,100] -- observers expect the BTRON-
based word processor will be around 2 million yen [$14,000].

(Ken Takahashi/19890622/Press Contact: Matsushita Electric
Industries, 06-908-1121)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00007)

BARGAIN TOSHIBA 4Mb DRAMs
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1989 JUN 17 (NB) -- The world's leading one-megabit
dynamic random access memory [DRAM] chip maker Toshiba has announced
that it will achieve monthly output of a whopping one million 4-
megabit DRAM chips within this year, but the real shocker is the
price -- Toshiba will sell the powerful new memory units for the
rock-bottom price of about 12,000 yen or $80 apiece.

While chip makers are now selling commercial 4Mb sample chips for about
30,000 yen or $210, all agree the price will come down as production
ramps up, in order to promote the 4 Mb chip in the industry.
As volume production starts, the chip price is expected to run
around 20,000 yen or $140 -- far higher than Toshiba's projected
price.

Toshiba expects to attain leadership in the 4-megabit DRAM chip
arena with this low price and high monthly output of one million.

Analysts expect Toshiba's actions to throw chip buyers into a state
of confusion, since only recently have they begun to buy mass
quantities of one-megabit DRAMs, which replaced 256 Kb chips.
There is even talk of another semiconductor dispute between Japan
and the U.S. arising, should Toshiba's actions force other one megabit
DRAM producers to switch production to four megabit DRAMs to keep up
with Toshiba.

(Ken Takahashi/19890622)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00008)

MULTIPLEXED FAX-TV DEBUTS
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1989 JUN 20 (NB) -- A new medium called multiplexed
facsimile broadcasting is being eyed as the next consumer technology
hit here. Multiplexed fax technology allows data to be sent via
television transmissions to specially equipped fax machines.

Sanyo, Sharp, and Matsushita Electric Industries are aggressively
developing the technology. They believe fax broadcasting will get
fax machines in some 30 million more households, and each company
has developed a prototype.

The television stations, however, say they will need considerable
time to initiate the service since it is expensive and risky to
offer yet another medium to the public. Some have already been
burned by the failure of teletext to reach a larger audience.

(Ken Takahashi/19890622)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00009)

FUJITSU'S NEW CAD SOFTWARE
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1989 JUN 20 (NB) -- Fujitsu has successfully
developed a new logic optimization method for its computer-aided
design software, Zephcad. The current version of the software
can compose designs using random logic and control logic in a
manner similar to the way the process is done manually.

The new Zephcad has the ability to draw circuits related to a data bus,
such as arithmetic and logic units. Fujitsu has adopted two new processes --
Transformation and Reduction, which researchers have used at University of
Illinois since 1970, and the other is BDD, Binary Decision Diagram, which
was proposed in 1959 and is the basis of OBDD, Ordered Binary Decision
Diagram, created at Carnegie Mellon University in 1986.

The new program is in the prototype stage and is expected to be
released in March.

(Naoyuki Yazawa/19890622)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00010)

JAPANESE WOMEN BUYING COMPUTERS
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1989 JUN 21 (NB) -- NEC, in a survey of PC-9800
and PC-8800 owners, says an increasing number of computers in
Japan are being purchased by women.

According to the report, females accounted for 5.2 percent of all
computer buyers last year -- an increase from 2.9 percent in 1986
and 3.7 percent in 1987.

In a related development, NEC says more buyers are getting into PCs
for the first time. People buying personal computers for the first time
amounted to 63.3 percent of all computer buyers last year, compared to
32.9 percent in 1986, and 57 percent in 1987.

NEC believes the survey shows personal computers are now a widely
accepted fixture in offices and are reaching a wider audience.
Usage of the computers, however, has been limited to a single purpose,
such as PC-8800 for playing games and PC-9800 for word processing.

Armed with the knowledge of the increasing interest of women, NEC
plans a new marketing campaign aimed directly at them.

(Naoyuki Yazawa/19890622)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00011)

JAPAN: MORE FOREIGNERS RESEARCH
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1989 JUN 17 (NB) -- In recent years, the desire of
foreign researchers to study in Japanese electronics firms has
been increasing. Throughout the world, researchers want to get a
peek at the hotbed of innovation taking place inside Japanese
electronics companies. Following are the conditions for foreign
research each company has imposed:

For five years, Hitachi has opened the door to only 10 doctorate
holders or researchers who have equivalent credentials. This year,
Hitachi will increase the number to 30.

Toshiba has been receiving two doctors from the United Kingdom but
has now expanded this number to 15. Some researchers from other
countries are accepted as well.

NEC has 26 foreign researchers employed at present. Another 10 more
will be able to study after its Tsukuba Research Center opens this July.

Fujitsu has no such system now.

However, there are barriers to further expansion of these policies.
Cultural differences between Japan and researchers from other countries
are pronounced, and only the well-heeled foreigners can afford the
high-cost for living in Tokyo, or adjust to the lifestyle and
languages.

(Naoyuki Yazawa/19890622)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(BRU)(00012)

GIGABIT'S COOLER CIRCUITS
NEWBURY PARK, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 23 (NB) -- Gigabit
Incorporated, one of the leaders in the gallium arsenide integrated circuit
[IC] marketplace, has unveiled a new modem chip, the 16G041-H. The
microprocessor is a complete phase-lock loop circuit designed for
modems and high speed channels.

The IC boasts speeds up to 600 million bits per second, yet uses less
than one watt of power, and fits into a 1.25" x 1.25" surface mount
package. The new chip is available at $247 for the IC alone, plus $845
for the board. Delivery is quoted as six weeks.

(Peter Vekinis/19890623/Press Contact: Brigham Scully - Tel: 818-
708 9383)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(BRU)(00013)

MEMORY PRICES DROP
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1989 JUN 22 (NB) -- The memory crunch of 1988
is over now that DRAM [dynamic random access memory] chips are
available again at prices lower than available previously. In
downtown Brussels last week, a 120 nanosecond [ns] 256K DRAM chip
cost BF 304 [about $7.23] in single quantities.

The price drop is even more dramatic when one megabit [Mb] DRAM chip
prices are investigated. A 1Mb DRAM chip in Brussels last week
cost just BF 1,140 [about $27]. At these prices, 256K of RAM for
a PC costs just BF 2,736 [about $65].

The price drop could be temporary, however, as reports from the
Far East, where most DRAM chips originate, suggest that the
major companies are easing up on production, owing to falling
profits in the DRAM chip marketplace.

(Peter Vekinis/19890623)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(BRU)(00014)

FASTER INKJETS
FRANKFURT, WEST GERMANY, 1989 JUN 23 (NB) -- Batelle Europe of
West Germany is working on improving inkjet printer technology.
The West Germany company has designed a pitch-shaped electrode
that controls the size and shape of the tiny ink drops as they
are squirted onto the page.

Batelle says that, by using its new technology, inkjet printer
users can free themselves from existing problems with low print
speed, clogging of nozzles and poor half-tone print quality.

(Klaus Rosenthal/19890623)


(NEWS)(UNIX)(SFO)(00001)

SUN CLONES FROM TAIWAN
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 21 (NB) -- Sun Microsystems
has licensed its SPARC reduced instruction set computer architecture to
two Taiwanese PC makers who will make low-cost Unix PCs. The deal,
aimed at establishing the SPARC microprocessor architecture as a standard
in the low-cost Unix computer market, was signed with Datatech
Enterprises Company and Tatung Company. The systems will use the
Open Look graphical interface developed by Sun and AT&T.

The involvement of Taiwanese PC clone-makers in the Unix market
also signals a departure from the venerable MS-DOS, and Microsoft's
ubiquitous operating system. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates reportedly
made a secret trip to Taiwan before this deal was closed, appealing to
the firms not to depart from the beaten track. The trip reportedly
paid off -- one firm which was interested, Acer Technology, backed
down from the deal, according to the San Francisco Examiner.

Scott McNealy, Sun president, says the two firms chose Sun's chips
because they offered the most software possibilities. Some 600
applications exist for SPARCware, more than those offered for all other
RISC/Unix platforms combined.

Tying up with Taiwan was a strategic move for Sun, as that country's
PC industry is growing the fastest of any in the world. The country
turned out 2. 5 million PCs last year, according to International Data
Corporation, with 84 percent of them sold in the U.S.

(Wendy Woods/19890623)


(NEWS)(UNIX)(SFO)(00002)

INTEL TO MAKE AT&T COMPUTERS
SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 JUN 23 (NB) -- AT&T is preparing
to launch its own set of micros built by Intel Corporation, according
to industry sources. While both companies had no comment on the
reports, industry sources say an official announcement will come
in August, and will involve 25 MHz and 33 MHz machines based on the
80386 microprocessor that are made in Intel's Hillsboro, Oregon
plant.

AT&T's Data Systems Group, based in Morristown, New Jersey, is
expected to announce the new PCs will include LAN Manager/X, software
which will enable communication between MS-DOS, Unix, and OS/2
applications. The software is the result of an on-going research
project between AT&T, Convergent Technologies, Prime Computer,
and Olivetti, to develop a multiprocessor software prototype based
on the Unix operating system.

While AT&T has never had a "hit" in the microcomputer arena, analysts
suggest the Unix operating system could turn the company's fortunes
around. The market for Unix and Unix-like software products will
reach $9. 3 billion in 1995, up from $2 billion in 1985, so says Market
Intelligence Research Company.

(Wendy Woods/19890623/Press Contact: Ursula Herrick, Intel, 408-765-5728)


(NEWS)(UNIX)(TYO)(00003)

JAPAN: WORKSTATION MARKET GROWS
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1989 JUN 20 (NB) -- The Japanese bought 33,000
workstations last year, and the market value of the machines and
software is worth 140 billion yen or $9,655 million, according
to the latest industry research. Further, the market is expected
to increase some 60 percent this year. Most of the money is being made
by U.S. firms, such as Sun Microsystems, HP/Apollo and DEC.

Sony has been the only major Japan-based workstation vendor, but now
Fujitsu, NEC, Toshiba and Hitachi have designs on the market.
NEC has tied-up with domestic and foreign software venders and expects
to sell 6,000 units of its workstation, the WS 4800 series, this year.
Meanwhile, Toshiba has launched its original engineering workstation,
and also, Hitachi will sell its workstation, the 2050 series, bundled
with computer network systems.

(Naoyuki Yazawa/19890622)


(NEWS)(UNIX)(BRU)(00004)

SIEMENS INTO OPTICAL FIBRE
MUNICH, WEST GERMANY, 1989 JUN 23 (NB) -- Siemens, the West
German technology giant, has released Ropcad-Optik, a fibre optic
design package. The software runs under Unix and is aimed at
users of Siemens' WS3 series of workstations, as well as other
Unix systems running under X-Windows.

Users of the package enter the layout of the fibre optic
circuit, as well as the thickness and number of fibres available.
The program then optimizes the circuit, as well as allows the
circuit structure to be manipulated on-screen. Such technology -
some 30 times faster than conventional computer aided design
[CAD] systems - does not come cheaply, however. Siemens is
charging DM 40,000 [about $20,000] for the software alone.

(Klaus Rosenthal/19890623)