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Text File | 1992-06-12 | 75KB | 1,633 lines

(NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00001)

 ****NHK Develops 40-inch Wall-Mounted TV 06/12/92
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1992 JUN 12 (NB) -- Japan Broadcasting Corporation
(NHK) has developed a wall-mounted TV which features a 40-inch flat
panel display. The display is a relatively thin 6-mm thick and
is designed to have resolution suitable for high definition
television (HDTV) broadcasts. NHK claims it is developing a
wall-mounted TV with an even larger display.

The wall-mounted, 40-inch display TV was actually developed by
NHK Broadcasting Technology Laboratory in Tokyo. The size of this
TV is 87.4 x 52 cm. It weighs 9 kg. The display consists of two
glass plates and electrodes and it is equipped with a proprietary
hybrid IC for pulse drive memory.

NHK is also developing a wall-mounted TV with a 55-inch display
which will be used for HDTV reception. NHK is expected
to provide this technology to HDTV makers in order to back up
NHK's HDTV standard.

HDTV broadcasting is underway in Japan for eight hours
each day on an experimental basis. Major Japanese electronics makers
are just beginning to see a market for high definition television.
They report modest sales of HDTV sets. Sony recently released a
relatively low-cost HDTV set for 1.3 million yen ($10,000).
Prices are expected to drop to 500,000 yen ($3,800) in the near
future depending upon how quickly new, cheaper HDTV chips can
be produced.

(Masayuki Miyazawa/19920612/Press Contact: NHK, [phone])


(NEWS)(APPLE)(TYO)(00002)

Minolta Becomes Macintosh Seller In Japan 06/12/92
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1992 JUN 12 (NB) -- Apple has expanded its dealer
network once again in Japan, signing on major camera maker
Minolta to sell its Macintosh models.

The agreement calls for Minolta to market the Macintosh at
Minolta's retail shops throughout Japan. Minolta is planning to
sell the Macintosh in combination with the firm's office equipment.
For instance, Minolta will combine the sales of the Macintosh with
its digital copiers, still video cameras, and printers. Minolta
may position the Macintosh in a multimedia package.

The arrangement begins July 7 at which date Minolta has agreed to
display the Macintosh in its showrooms in Tokyo and Osaka.

Minolta has recently been suffering under a huge debt as a result
of the loss of a camera copyright suit with Honeywell. The firm
sustained a 30 billion yen ($230) loss for fiscal 1991 which
is expected to be reduced to nine billion yen ($70) for this fiscal
year. Sales of the Macintosh may help pick up profits in the future.

Currently, Canon and Kokuyo are mainly marketing Apple computers
in Japan.

(Masayuki Miyazawa/19920611/Press Contact: Minolta, +81-3-3435-
5511)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00003)

Toshiba Quits DAT Manufacturing 06/12/92
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1992 JUN 12 (NB) -- Toshiba has stopped
production of digital audio tape recorders (DATs). Observers
suggest this is partly due to severe competition among DAT
makers, but could also be the pending copyright issue of the DAT
software.

Toshiba entered the DAT market in 1987 and has released two
DAT players. Its main competition is Sony, Japan Columbia, Pioneer,
Aiwa and Matsushita Electric which have also released DAT players.
A total of 60,000 DAT players were shipped in 1991, half of
them by Sony which controls roughly half the total DAT market share.

However, the market remains soft and Toshiba may be responding to
this. DAT shipments are extremely small compared to the more than
1.1 million units of other audio devices that are being shipped,
including CD radio cassette tape recorders and headphone stereo sets.

Music record makers are hesitant to produce music software for
DAT recorders because the music copyright issue has not been
resolved yet. Consumers are also hesitant to purchase DAT players
since there are so few titles.

The recent slump in the industry is another reason why
Toshiba has abandoned manufacturing of DATs. Other manufacturers
may follow Toshiba's move and may shift the production to
the DCC and Mini-Disk, both of which have potential as future
digital audio systems.

(Masayuki Miyazawa/19920611/Press Contact: Toshiba, +81-3-3457-
2100)


(NEWS)(APPLE)(SYD)(00004)

Australia: NetComm Adapting ISDN Mac NuBus Card 06/12/92
CENTRAL, HONGKONG, 1992 JUN 12 (NB) -- Apple Computer Australia,
NetComm, and OTC Australia have combined forces to adapt the ISDN
Macintosh NuBus card to meet the telecommunications standards of
Australia and other countries.

The project is part of Apple Australia's ongoing Partnership for
Development initiatives with the Australian government. NetComm's
general manager, Paul Heath, said, "This project will see technology
worth millions of dollars transferred to Australia and will provide
NetComm with a springboard into the growing ISDN market. It gives us
the opportunity to develop leading edge software and hardware
technology for the international marketplace."

OTC says its objective is to have products available in the
marketplace which will stimulate demand for its advanced
international ISDN services and to provide a platform which will
permit development of imaginative applications.

The product will be NetComm branded, and will enable Macs with
NuBus to connect to ISDN basic rate services such as Australia's
Microlink. ISDN is capable of providing high quality voice,
high-speed data, and video communications over a single
public-switched data line.

A Macintosh equipped with the new board will be able to do all
three things interchangeably or simultaneously, within a
country or around the world, the companies say.

(Paul Zucker/199206011/Contact: Paul Heath ph +61-2-
8885533 fax [phone])


(EDITORIAL)(GENERAL)(WAS)(00005)

Editorial: Electronic Town Meetings, by John McCormick 06/12/92
WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A., 1992 JUN 12 (NB) -- It has taken just
over 40 years for presidential candidates to recognize that the
combination of television and telephones have opened up a new way
of campaigning, but that recognition has finally set in.

Undeclared candidate H. Ross Perot was ridiculed by mainstream
press and political insiders alike when he began talking of
electronic town meetings but, as President Bush learned when the
three major networks recently refused to carry his rare prime time
"news conference," people are fed up with political business as
usual.

The President's meeting with the elite of Washington's press
corps was not carried by NBC, CBS, or ABC because it was
suspected that it would be blatantly political, rather than a
real news conference, and indeed nearly half the questions
actually related to Mr. Perot.

Governor Bill Clinton had meanwhile appeared on several of the
talk show circuit programs, as had Mr. Perot, and, seeing that
his recognition ratings (not to mention his approval ratings)
were slipping in the polls, the Democratic candidate was doing
everything from having television sax (playing blues on the
saxophone) on the popular Arsenio Hall Show to holding a real,
live one-hour-long electronic town meeting on NBC's Today Show.

Whether because there is more interest in him, or just because
NBC saw how well the one-hour session with Clinton went, Mr.
Perot followed with a two-hour phone-in question-and-answer
period of his own on the Today Show.

Now, possibly shocked by the lack of interest in his press
conference, President Bush has announced that he will make the
talk show round, bypassing the so-called "media elite," but the
format hasn't yet been announced and there is no indication that
Mr. Bush is ready for questions from actual people - we will just
have to wait and see.

Why is this happening? Is it, as many political pundits are
saying, because people distrust the reporters or is it much
simpler than that?

Are political candidates finally waking up to the fact that
people want to have a feeling of participation, of being able, if
only random chance will favor them, to actually ask a question on
their own?

The real situation may be far more cynical. This year there is
the first solid candidate for president who comes from outside
the mainstream political arena and the insiders are panicking.

Mr. Perot's ratings are so high that for the first time this
century we may have neither a Democrat nor a Republican in the
White House and because of that the politicians are actually
campaigning in a way that more rather than fewer people will be
likely to vote.

This isn't altruism; the entire political machine in this country
is geared to alienating most potential voters, leaving the real
selection of president to the hard-core voting members of the two
major parties.

This year there are so many defections from both camps to the
Perot bandwagon that they have been forced to turn to modern
technology in an effort to reverse the decades-long trend toward
voter apathy.

The questions asked of both Mr. Perot and Gov. Clinton by the
Today Show's audience were generally of a high caliber, certainly
as good as those asked by the high priests of Washington
knowledge who possess White House press passes.

But even if they hadn't been asked good questions, at least the
people viewing would have understood that the questions were
coming from "real people," not reporters who daily live in close
proximity to the imperial trappings of the presidency and who
can't help but be affected by those surroundings.

This is also the first year when a major candidate was not only
fully computer-literate but was saying that computers and high-
tech are the wave of the future for this country if we wish to
remain competitive.

Mr. Perot's power base isn't in Washington but in Silicon Valley
and in every small business that couldn't operate without
computers.

More importantly, he is saying to the parents of America that
their children must be educated to world-class standards, and
people believe him.

Whether Mr. Perot becomes president or the same old parties
eventually dominate, there will probably be a new focus on just
how important computers and telecommunications are both to
politicians and to the country as a whole.

Of course there is a possibility that, if re-elected once again,
the entrenched political elite will panic and try to block the
rapid growth of bulletin boards and other electronic messaging
systems because they will see this as their last chance to
totally eliminate the people's direct participation in
government.

Just so you know, I have worked as a reporter in Washington and
am a member of The National Press Club (located three blocks from
the White House).

(John McCormick/19920612)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(WAS)(00006)

ROUNDUP: Stories Carried By Other Media This Week 06/12/92
WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A., 1992 JUN 12 (NB) -- Roundup is a brief
look at some computer stories carried in other publications
received here this past week.

Global Telephony dated June 1 says that Israel's Bezeq (the
government monopoly of telecommunications services) may go public
by selling off some of its holdings.

Computer Reseller News dated June 8 says that IBM has been asking
its resellers how they could participate at the delivery end if
IBM were to go to a larger direct sales marketing plan. Another
cover story says that if you ever wanted to own a piece of
WordPerfect you might just be in luck because the company may be
positioning itself to bring out an IPO (initial public offering
of stock).

The June 8 issue of Computerworld clears up the mystery of what
IBM will do with OfficeVision LAN - it will, according to the
lead story, kill off the project.

May's Canadian Datasystems (it just began arriving at this
office) says that there is more than one path to open systems and
also has a report on pen-based computing.

(John McCormick/19920612)


(NEWS)(IBM)(SFO)(00007)

GainMomentum Multimedia Will Port to Windows/NT 06/12/92
PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1992 JUN 12 (NB) -- At some
point after the end of this year, Windows N/T will join Unix and
VAX on the list of software platforms for the new GainMomentum
multimedia, multitasking, multiuser applications environment,
Newsbytes has learned.

Thomas M. Siebel, CEO of Gain Technology, made mention of a move to
Windows during a talk this week at the "Software & Systems Outlook"
conference in Boston. Bob Runge, marketing communication director,
later told Newsbytes that the Windows port will be to the N/T
system -- and that Gain will release an announcement pinpointing
the timing.

"We will be running on N/T," Runge affirmed, "but all I can tell
you right now is that (the port) won't happen in 1992, and it will
probably be in early 1993."

Gain -- a three-year-old startup that is already partnering with
Sun, IBM, and Matsushita Electronics -- won't add Windows to its
roster of operating environments until the 32-bit N/T
implementation is ready, he explained.

The current 16-bit implementations of Windows don't supply the
levels of multitasking and multiuser support that GainMomentum
needs, he added. "N/T is the only operating system for the Intel
hardware platform that will accommodate our software,"
he commented.

Gain is targeting the recently released GainMomentum applications
environment at enterprise and departmental networks. The system
incorporates animation, full-motion video, sound, graphics, and
hypertext.

"Within two or three years, we'll see 300 MIP computers on the
corporate desktop, all networked together, and the machines will
operate like an "interactive CNN." Gain is delivering an
integrated family of products that will enable development of
applications like this," said Siebel during his talk in Boston.

A Sun version of GainMomentum, shipping since last month, is being
used to build an application that will be bundled with all Sun
workstations over a three-year span beginning this summer, noted
the CEO.

Runge told Newsbytes that the "interactive learning application"
will employ sights and sounds to teach Sun Unix users about the
file manager, mail tool, and other aspects of the Sun operating
system.

Versions of GainMomentum for IBM, DEC, Hewlett-Packard and Silicon
Graphics workstations will be available by summer, and IBM will use
the environment to develop an application for the RISC System/6000,
according to previous company announcements.

GainMomentum and another Gain product, GainExposure, are both the
fruits of a joint development agreement with Matsushita.
GainExposure, released in January, is designed for developing
multimedia demonstrations of software packages, said Runge.

Matsushita has announced its intentions to use the Gain development
environments for a new generation of consumer electronics products
incorporating HDTV (high definition television).

(Jacqueline Emigh/19920612; Press Contact: Bob Runge, Gain, tel
415-813-8236)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00008)

 ****Software Outlook: Is Mainframe Dying? Maybe Yes, Maybe No 06/12/92
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1992 JUN 12 (NB) -- "How much
longer before the mainframe becomes obsolete?" asked a panel
moderator at this week's "Software & Systems Outlook" conference --
and the answers he got from software vendors ranged all the way
from "Never" to "It's obsolete already."

Elaborating on his initial question, moderator Richard Sherlund,
vice president of the Goldman Sachs, probed the panel: "Are the
days of the mainframe numbered? How many years would you give it?"

One panelist responded with a question of his own, and answered it
immediately. "Who in this room -- or what MIS manager, anywhere
-- would buy a mainframe? I claim, `Nobody,'" asserted Joseph
Alsop, president of Progress Software.

"The economics of downsizing -- either to a low cost, high
performance VAX or to the client server layer -- are so compelling
that the only reason to have a mainframe is that you've already got
the thing in the first place," remarked the top official of the
relational database company.

But Umang Gupta, president and CEO of Gupta Technologies, gave a
response diametrically opposed. "I take exception to the notion of
the mainframe becoming obsolete," stated Gupta. Systems such as
IBM's MVS mainframe stand a good chance of lasting at least another
20 years, because customers appreciate the high level of support
being supplied by current mainframe vendors, he predicted.

And even when the current mainframes do die out, new computers with
similar capabilities will arise to take their place, he added.
Neither Gupta nor the other panelists brought up the name of the
supercomputer. But Gupta did speculate that, in the future, there
will be different gradations of servers -- large ones for central
records storage, and smaller ones at departmental levels --playing
host to desktop clients.

Some large servers will be roughly equivalent to the mainframes of
today, suggested Gupta, whose company builds applications, database
servers, and connectivity software that runs on PC LANs in
client/server as well as cooperative processing environments.

Dennis McEvoy, president and CEO of Cooperative Solutions,
concurred with Gupta to some extent. "The MVS mainframe will stay
around because of its capacity," said McEvoy, noting that
"capacity" should be measured in terms of "the ability to manage
large databases" as well as in number of MIPS.

Mainframe-equivalent capacity is still absent from LAN-based
systems, although Unix will probably grow up to the same level
eventually, said McEvoy.

According to McEvoy, most customers for Cooperative's client/server
transaction processing software need mainframe solutions as well,
since their applications tend to include databases requiring five
gigabytes or more in storage.

Another speaker, Mitchell Kertzman, steered the middle course.
Mainframes are still alive, but probably not forever, said
Kertzman, president of PowerSoft, the maker of a client/server
development environment for large commercial and government
applications.

"Nobody's building new applications for the mainframe any more,"
commented Kertzman. As a result, the lifetime of a mainframe is
being defined by the life cycle of its applications, together with
the cost of maintaining the hardware and software.

"Mainframes will be around for as long as the economics of keeping
applications running on them makes sense," he concluded.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19920612)


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

UPI Saved Again, For Now 06/12/92
WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A, 1992 JUN 12 (NB) -- Maybe it could be
a TV series -- it certainly has enough cliffhangers. Leon
Charney, a former advisor to President Jimmy Carter, has rescued
UPI, for now, a day before it was to close its doors for good.

United Press International reached an agreement in principle with
Charney, who now works as an attorney, television moderator,
producer and author, to continue operations while Charney
prepares a formal bid for the assets of the wire service. The
agreement was slated for signatures at noon on June 12. Charney
will meet the company's payroll while looking at the books.

Earlier, religious talk-show host and former presidential
candidate Pat Robertson had backed off his $6 million bid for the
service, saying its debts were too high and its equipment too
antiquated. He'd estimated it would take $31 million just to keep
the company operating through the end of 1993, with no assurance
of a return on the investment. Robertson paid an estimated
$150,000 to keep the company operating while he made his
decision, following a dramatic appearance at a Vermont
bankruptcy court auction where he was the only substantial
bidder.

In a news release, UPI said Charney expects to make a bid for all
or substantially all of UPI's assets. In its Chapter 11 filing in
the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, UPI said it owed
creditors about $60 million.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19920612)


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

International Phone Update 06/12/92
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1992 JUN 12 (NB) -- While political
leaders meet in Rio de Jenairo looking for a way to reconcile
economic growth and environmental vitality, the relatively clean
telecommunications industry continues to make progress throughout
the developing world.

Motorola of the US formed a joint venture with Netas AS and SGS
Profilo of Turkey to build GSM digital cellular system in that
country. The groups will bid on systems which could wind up
costing several hundred million dollars. GSM is a pan-European
digital standard, similar to the US-approved TDMA scheme, which
could allow for continent-wide roaming by the end of the century.
But GSM has been slow to develop in many advanced markets,
notably the United Kingdom, because incompatible analog systems
have not yet won substantial returns on their assets.

Bulgaria said the European Investment Bank, European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development, and World Bank have approved an
initial loan of $50 million to modernize its 100-year old phone
system. Germany's Siemens, Sweden's Ericsson and AT&T of the
United States are expected to bid on the project.

AT&T's NCR unit won a $55 million contract to modernize the
computer systems at the Slovenska Statna Sporitelna in Slovakia.
That bank has 650 branches, and the work would run through 1997.
In recent elections, Slovakia voters supported a party committed
to breaking off from the Czech homeland to the west, and a
referendum on independence is expected before the end of the
year.

Far to the East, in Vladivostok on the Russian east coast,
KDD and Nissei Iwai trading signed a deal to build a state-of-
the-art communications system, including a digital switchboard
with capacity for 3,600 lines. The companies said businessmen in
Niigata, Toyama and other cities have been flooding them with
requests for service. Japan is expected to get first dibs on
exploiting Siberia's vast forest and mineral wealth.

The Cocom trading agency, which now has Russia as a member,
continues to resist attempts by that country to build a cross-
country fiber optic phone network, which would be impossible for
Western spy agencies to tap into. But China's another matter.
That country said it will soon take international tenders on
15,000 kilometers of fiber linking 21 provinces and cities,
including a line from the capital of Beijing to Guangzhou, the
province near Hong Kong which is rapidly making progress along
the capitalist road. Completion of the lines will double China's
telecommunications capacity.

While Mexico, Columbia and Venezuela consider a free trade pact,
which could link a US-led trade zone with South America's
Mercosur group, Mexico is also modernizing its banking system.
Banco Nacional de Mexico, known as Banamex, ordered 680
DataMover 2000 units from Comptek of the US, which will let it
put automated tellers in locations where telephone access is
impractical. The units use cellular technology to move bursts of
financial data back and forth.

Finally, down in that Mercosur bloc, AT&T signed a deal to
provide cellular equipment for Curitiba, the capital city of
Parana province in Brazil.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19920612/Press Contact: Barbara Mierisch, 201-
606-2457, AT&T Network Systems; Robert Farkas, NCR, 513-445-2078;
Christopher A. Head, Comptek, 716-842-2700)


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

House Looks At Bills Making Phone Firms Liable for Fraud 06/12/92
WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1992 JUN 12 (NB) -- The US House
began consideration of a bill by Rep. Barney Frank of
Massachusetts which would make phone companies and equipment
suppliers, not consumers, liable for losses due to fraud.

Mitsubishi had sued AT&T last year over its losses, claiming that
since it made its PBX and was its long distance supplier it
should take responsibility for a hacker's ability to infiltrate
the system and steal over $100,000 in international phone
service.

Experts told the House telecommunications subcommittee of Rep.
Edward Markey, which has jurisdiction on the bill, that consumers
are losing $2.2 billion to thieves, and the fraud will continue
as long as the industry is able to say it's not responsible. But
a spokesman for AT&T said his company has taken steps against the
thieves, and maintained that since PBXs are on customer premises
and only the customer knows who is an authorized caller, that the
customers' security measures are the best defense. AT&T has taken
customers to court for failing to pay such fraudulent charges,
even suing the United Nations for nearly a million dollars a few
years ago.

In addition to offering special software and fast access to
in-house fraud experts, both AT&T and Sprint have begun selling a
form of insurance making customers less liable for phone fraud.
Sprint claimed its security procedures have cut such fraud by 90
percent. "Based on current data, we anticipate less than 250
outward bound international CPE fraud incidents in 1992,"
testified Robert F. Fox, Sprint assistant vice president of
security. "Since January 1992, the average loss per CPE fraud
incident is less than $2,000.

Still, many companies have voice mail systems that let their
employees dial into their PBX machines from outside and enter a
4-digit identifier, like a bank-card PIN, so they can make long-
distance calls through the company's phone plan. Hackers break
into the voice mail systems by using their computers to dial all
possible PIN codes, then dial out free. They can also sell the
PIN codes they steal, leading to thieves at pay phones selling
drug importers cheap, secure access to their international supply
sources.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19920612/Press Contact: Janis Langley, Sprint,
202-828-7427)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00012)

Cellular Industry Gives Thumbs-Up to CDMA 06/12/92
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1992 JUN 12 (NB) -- Qualcomm, a
public company partly owned by Pacific Telesis, hailed the
decision by the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association
requesting expeditious development of a Code Division Multiple
Access digital cellular standard for North America.

CDMA is a digital cellular scheme which sends out calls on a
broad spectrum of frequencies, delivering 10 times the calling
capacity of analog phones. A competing standard, called Time
Division Multiple Access, or TDMA, splits each call channel into
pieces, then sends separate digitized voice streams on each piece
of the channel. TDMA has been repeatedly endorsed by the CTIA in
the past, which said CDMA was an unproven technology. A number of
cellular operators, notably Southwestern Bell and McCaw, have
committed to TDMA, which offers only three times present
capacity, while GM-Hughes has offered an enhancement to TDMA
which would give 15 times present calling capacity. However, many
cellular companies have decided to wait until the smoke clears,
supporting enhancements to the present AMPS analog system offered
by Motorola.

Back in January, the CTIA authorized the Telecommunications
Industry Association to form a subcommittee, TR45.5, to look at
schemes like CDMA. The group, which represents cellular phone
operators, has now authorized that group to focus solely on the
standardization of CDMA.

Shares in Qualcomm rose about 6 percent on the news.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19920612/Press Contact: Qualcomm, Allen
Salmasi, 619/597-5060)


(NEWS)(IBM)(SFO)(00013)

New For PC: Softway PenDOS Extensions For Screen Dev't System 06/12/92
SAN FRANCISCO, CA, U.S.A. 1992 JUN 12 (NB) -- Softway has
announced the addition of pen programming abilities to its Hi-
Screen Pro II screen development system.

A new version of Hi-Screen Pro II, slated for July shipment, will
come with extensions for the PenDOS operating system, a
product of Communications Intelligence Corporation (CIC).

Hi-Screen II allows the PC programmer to manage all aspects of
user input and output, including the design of icons, menus, and
screens, Negin Khorrami, software support engineer, told
Newsbytes.

The standard version of the product, priced at $395 and available
since January, runs on DOS. The version with PenDOS extensions,
priced at $795 and slated for July shipment, will operate on
either PenDOS or DOS. The use of PenDOS will supply applications
with character recognition and signature verification
capabilities, according to Khorrami.

Each version will work with any programming language, on any IBM
PC-compatible hardware 8086 or above.

The pen extensions consist of a new object module that supports
PenDOS, Khorrami explained. The program provides icon, menu and
screen editing functions specifically designed for pen.

Softway also produces a wide range of other applications
development packages. "All our products are royalty free, and
that's very important for developers to know," Khorrami noted.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19920611; Press Contact: Fran Bollerot,
Softway, tel [phone])


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00014)

 ****Broderbund Nabs PC Globe, Company Delighted 06/12/92
NOVATO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1992 JUN 12 (NB) -- Broderbund Software
reports it has plans to acquire PC Globe Inc., publishers of
"electronic atlas" programs, for $1.5 million, subject to shareholder
approval. The deal culminates a long and at one time rocky courtship
between the two firms.

Broderbund has been distributing PC Globe's products into the
educational market since late 1991, and is still engaged in a lawsuit
with one of PC Globe's other suitors.

PC Globe sales in fiscal 1991 were $7.7 million. Its products include
PC Globe, PC USA and MacGlobe.

The deal follows a series of legal maneuvers aimed at breaking up
a relationship between PC Globe and Intracorp, a Miami-based software
company. In January 1992, Broderbund filed a lawsuit in US District Court
in San Francisco to set aside a supposed acquisition agreement between
PC Globe and Intracorp. Intracorp filed counterclaims against Broderbund
which were later dismissed. The heart of the matter is that the Intracorp
agreement violated an agreement that Broderbund and PC Globe had signed
last year, as well as a line of credit that Broderbund had provided to PC
Globe.

Broderbund VP and general counsel, Thomas L. Marcus told Newsbytes
that Broderbund and PC Globe still have claims on-going in court against
Intercorp.

PC Globe employs a staff of forty and there is no definite word as
to what a merger will mean staff-wise. "We're working on the transition
plan now. We expect to maintain the company's facility there [in Tempe], and
that some functions will be integrated up here," explained Broderbund
spokeswoman Kathleen Burke to Newsbytes.

"We at PC Globe are delighted to be acquired by Broderbund," said Don
Ditter, PC Globe's president. Spokesman Richard Burger says, "We
are really happy, and there is a tremendous amount of relief that
after months of uncertainty in the wake of Roy Kessler's death, that
we finally know that the company has a positive destiny, that PC Globe
will survive in the hands of a great publicly trade company." Kessler,
the company's founder, died at age 35 of lymphoma on October 25th of
last year.

(Wendy Woods/19920612/Press Contact: Kathleen Burke, 415/382-4567
or PC Globe Inc., Tempe; Richard Burger, 602/730-9000)


(NEWS)(IBM)(HKG)(00015)

Synon Speeds Software Migration To AS/400 Platform 06/12/92
WANCHAI, HONG KONG, 1992 JUN 12 (NB) -- Synon Corporation, supplier of
CASE tools for IBM midrange systems, has introduced a new re-
engineering tool set that is designed to substantially reduce the cost
of migrating applications to the IBM AS/400 platform.

Called Synon Gateway, the new tool set allows users to migrate
applications from IBM System/36 and System/38 and Unisys equipment to
the AS/400, the company says. Early usage figures from the US
indicate that migration costs using Gateway could be reduced by up
to 70 percent, the firm reports.

Synon Gateway accepts several source language formats including RPG II
and RPG III from IBM System/36/38, COBOL from any IBM mid-range
system, and LINC 4GL from Unisys. It will be used in conjunction with
Synon/2E to provide CASE-based design, development and maintenance for
future versions and enhancements of re-engineering applications.

A separate translator and interpreter are provided for each source
language format, allowing full recovery of data elements, definitions
and file relations as well as very high rates of logic recovery.

"By dramatically speeding migration to the AS/400, Synon Gateway helps
users to upgrade their system in line with business growth," said Guy
Riddle, Synon Asia's Hong Kong-based technical specialist.
"Previously, to move applications to the AS/400, users either had to
make the AS/400 emulate System/36/38 mode, and hence run below
capacity, or face the laborious task of manually re-writing their
applications. Now, with Synon Gateway, the AS/400 environment is open
to thousands of organizations that are trapped in their current
hardware."

The announcement follows Synon's recent launch of its Client/Server
Generator which enables cooperative processing between the AS/400 and
PCs running OS/2. According to Riddle, both announcements are part of
the company's long term strategy to enable cross-platform development
without having to redesign and rewrite.

"Users want flexible systems that can easily grow with their business,
that use each platform to its best advantage, yet still protect their
existing applications investment," he said.

(Brett Cameron/19920609/Press contact: Brian Paterson, Euan Barty &
Associates, tel [phone]; HK time is GMT + 8)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(HKG)(00016)

New For Networks: Ethernet Switching For Intelligent Hubs 06/12/92
CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1992 JUN 12 (NB) -- SynOptics Communications
announced the launch of an extension to its LattisNet System 3000
intelligent hub. According to the company, the new LattisSwitch
System 3000 marks the first time that Ethernet switching
technology has been available in an intelligent hub.

Developed under an alliance with high-performance switching technology
vendor, US-based Kalpana Inc., the new system is designed to provide
users with increased Ethernet throughput for network segments or
servers, while protecting current investments in Ethernet equipment.
It can support up to five fully managed Ethernet segments in a single
chassis, with high-performance switching to connect the segments.

"LattisNet users now have the means to interconnect multiple Ethernet
segments with significant performance and cost advantages over
conventional bridging," said David Coulson, SynOptics' Asia sales
manager.

The LattisSwitch System 3000 extension includes a new backplane for
the current System 3000 intelligent hubs and several new modules. In
addition, all previous SynOptics System 3000 Ethernet modules -
including pre-10BASE-T versions - are compatible with the new
LattisSwitch System 3000 and can take advantage of the hub's
multisegment capabilities.

The LattisSwitch System 3000 also continues the System 3000's support
for Token Ring and Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI), along with
Ethernet, in the same hub.

Under the newly formed technology alliance, Kalpana and SynOptics will
jointly develop a six-port Ethernet switching module for the
LattisSwitch System 3000. Dubbed the Model 3328 Ethernet Switching
Engine, it is expected to be available by the end of the year.

SynOptics has implemented multisegment Ethernet by modifying the
existing Ethernet channel "A," on the System 3000 backplane so that it
can be divided into as many as four Ethernet segments. All existing
System 3000 Ethernet modules can plug into any segment on this
channel. A fifth segment is implemented via a second Ethernet channel
on the backplane, channel "B."

New SynOptics Ethernet modules will take advantage of the second
channel to provide a variety of benefits, including configuration
flexibility, fault resilience and enhanced network management and
diagnostics, the company says.

In addition to the new backplane, SynOptics will offer three new types
of modules for use with the LattisSwitch System 3000 extension. These
include a new 24-port high-density 10BASE-T module, two new Network
Management Modules with connectors for both channels as well as the
new Ethernet Switching Engine being jointly developed with Kalpana.

"The new high-density 10BASE-T module will enable customers to build
networks with up to 264 ports in one LattisSwitch System 3000," said
Coulson. "The new module can be logically configured on the 'A'
channel or the 'B' channel from a network management station. Changing
modules between channels without physical intervention saves the time
and effort involved in manual changes and helps keep users online if
there are problems on either channel," said Coulson.

The new network management modules are capable of managing ports on
either channel. Both models will provide all the functionality of
their existing single-channel counterparts and existing network
management modules can still be used on the "A" channel.

"In the new LattisSwitch System 3000, customers can choose to use one
network management module per hub for basic capabilities such as
Expanded View, LED status, and port control for all modules," Coulson
said. "Or, they can use a separate network management module in each
segment to provide more detailed statistics, support for the
Autotopology mapping feature, node security and thresholds."

(Brett Cameron/19920609/Press contact: David Coulson, Synoptics,
Tel [phone]; HK time is GMT + 8)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00017)

Moves To improve US-Japan Technical Relations 06/12/92
CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1992 JUN 12 (NB) -- KTI Semiconductor Ltd, a joint
venture between Kobe Steel and Texas Instruments, has opened its
semiconductor wafer fabrication plant in the Japanese city of
Nishiwaki. Volume production will begin in the third quarter.

Jerry R. Junkins, TI's chairman, president and CEO, took part in the
traditional ceremony inaugurating the plant, together with Kobe
Steel's President Sokichi Kametaka, and high-ranking local officials.
"This joint venture will contribute toward improving US-Japan
relations in the semiconductor industry," predicted Kametaka.

"For TI, the joint venture is an important piece of the company's
commitment to serving the needs of its customers in Japan and in the
rest of the Asia-Pacific region," said Junkins. "It is also
an integral part of TI's long-term strategy to have
adequate design, production, marketing and support capacity deployed
throughout the major market regions of the world to service customers
on a global basis, wherever they may need our products."

KTI, which is 75 percent owned by Kobe Steel, was formed in May 1990
to manufacture advanced semiconductor products in Japan. Since
construction began in February 1991, approximately $426 million has
been invested in the state-of-the-art plant.

Initially, KTI will produce 16 megabit (Mbit) DRAM memory devices.
However, beginning in 1993 the plant will start production of advanced
CMOS logic devices, including application specific integrated circuits
(ASICs). By fiscal 1995, production is expected to centre primarily on
logic devices.

"KTI's submicron-CMOS production capability addresses the fastest
growing segment of the Japanese semiconductor market, which is
application specific products," said Junkins. "TI is rapidly
increasing its product mix toward a greater percentage of these
differentiated devices such as ASICs, application processors, micro-
controllers, advanced linear circuits and application specific
memories."

Semiconductor products from the new plant will be sold exclusively to
TI for distribution and sale in the world's commercial semiconductor
markets.

KTI will produce semiconductors on eight-inch wafers, giving the plant
a capacity almost twice that of wafer fabs using six-inch wafers. It
is capable of manufacturing integrated circuits using 0.5 micron
design rules, circuits in which the smallest structures fabricated on
the wafer are only 0.5 microns in diameter.

Over the past three years, TI has invested more than $2.4 billion
worldwide. Additional wafer fabrication projects include a submicron
CMOS plant in Italy that began production in 1991, a joint venture
with Taiwan's Acer Inc., which is already shipping advanced
semiconductors, and a joint venture with Canon, Hewlett-Packard and
the Economic Development Board of Singapore, now under construction in
Singapore.

(Brett Cameron/19920609/Press contact: Sharon Hampton, TI,
Tel: [phone]; HK time is GMT + 8)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00018)

New For Networks: Ungermann Bass Departmental Hub 06/12/92
SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1992 JUN 12 (NB) -- Ungermann Bass
has introduced a 12-port 10Base-T hub product that is called the
Access/Hub. Until this introduction, Ungermann Bass (UB) has been
primarily known as a vendor of high-end enterprise-wide
internetworking systems and components, so this introduction came as
somewhat of a surprise.

In a telephone interview with Andrea Saliba, product marketing
manager, Newsbytes has learned that UB has been moving towards the
departmental LAN market over the past few months. In particular,
Andrea pointed to the recent introduction of a 2-slot version of
the Access/One enterprise hub. "The idea," said Andrea, "is that UB
wants to provide solutions for all levels of the enterprise. The 2
slot Access/One was a step in that direction. Access/Hub is another
step."

The Access/Hub is a much simpler hub than the Access/One is. It is
dedicated to serving 10Base-T ports and offers only a single upgrade
option. A customer can purchase the Access/Hub either with or without
a daughterboard that provides for SNMP (Simple Network Management
Protocol) management. Should someone buy the hub without the SNMP
agent and then desire to add it, UB offers an upgrade package to
accomodate this.

UB's SNMP agent supports MIB I and MIB II definitions and is
fully compliant with the IEEE 802.3K Repeater draft standard
for SNMP hub management.

In addition to the 12 ports that connect 10Base-T devices, the
Access/Hub also has an AUI connector. This connector and the semi-
special port allow the customer to connect several of these
hubs together. UB mentions that by connecting hubs in this manner
it is possible to build a network of up to 276 nodes. The hub also
sports an array of 28 LEDs to support on-board diagnostics; an
electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) device
for faster startup after power shutdown; and can be managed by any
SNMP compliant manager. Of course, UB's NetDirector product can
manage the new hub.

The Access/Hub is available now. The unmanaged version sells for
$1395. The managed version for $1995. The upgrade to add SNMP
management functionality sells for $750.

(Naor Wallach/19920611, Press Contact: Laura Irwin, Ungermann Bass,
408-987-6509)


(NEWS)(IBM)(LAX)(00019)

New For PC: Runtime For Windowbase 1.5 06/12/92
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1992 JUN 12 (NB) -- One of the first
companies to offer database application software for Microsoft
Windows, Software Products International (SPI), says it is now
offering an unlimited runtime version of its database development
product, Windowbase 1.5.

The runtime version allows applications developed in Windowbase to be
compiled and run on computers without Windowbase installed.

SPI says Windowbase offers an improved graphical user interface, and
provides gateways to dBASE III and Btrieve file formats. The company
says the product also allows users to input, view, and update data
through forms, reports, or tables. Structured query language (SQL)
support is also included so users who know very little about SQL can
still produce queries using button selections, edit controls, and
check boxes.

SPI points out that under Windows, Windowbase can use Dynamic Data
Exchange (DDE) which allows the exchange of data with other Windows
spreadsheets, word processors and communications packages. The
company also says the product has passed Microsoft's certification
for Windows 3.1 compatibility. That means drag and drop, Truetype
fonts, and common dialog boxes are all supported, SPI added.

The suggested retail price for Windowbase 1.5 is $495, while the
runtime version is an extra $249, SPI said. Registered users can
upgrade to the runtime version for $199 directly from SPI, however a
special $299 offer for both Windowbase 1.5 and the runtime is offered
by SPI to developers until July 31 of this year, Connie Roloff of
public relations told Newsbytes.

(Linda Rohrbough/19920611/Press Contact: Connie Roloff, Software
Products International, tel [phone] ext 414, fax [phone])


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00020)

Symantec Buys Further Into Programmer's Tools Market 06/12/92
CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1992 JUN 12 (NB) -- Symantec, the
company which last year bought Santa Monica, California-based Peter
Norton Computing, says it has acquired two more companies -- Mountain
View, California-based Multiscope and Evanston, Illinois-based The
Whitewater Group.

Multiscope develops Debuggers for Windows, DOS, and OS/2 for use by
software developers in locating and fixing programming errors. The
Whitewater Group is probably best known for its Whitewater Resource
Toolkit for interactively designing and modifying the look and feel
of Windows applications. Whitewater's products are geared toward
object-oriented programming (OOP) tools and class libraries for the
development of Windows applications.

Symantec says the acquisitions will be accounted for as a pooling of
interests and will issue approximately 165,000 shares of its common
stock for the current outstanding shares of MultiScope stock and
approximately 80,000 shares for the current outstanding shares of The
Whitewater Group stock. The company expects the merger will cost $2.1
million or $.06 per share after tax in a one-time expense.

No moves are planned for the personnel of the two purchased
companies, though both companies will report to newly appointed
director of development tools Carol Clettenberg, Symantec said.

Though Symantec is probably best known for its utility products for
Macintosh, DOS, and Windows, the company says it has a strong
presence in the development tools market. Its development tools
include Think C and Think Pascal, both integrated development
environments, and Zortech's 32-bit C++ compilers for DOS, Windows,
OS/2, Unix, and Macintosh.

(Linda Rohrbough/19920611/Press Contact: Brian Fawkes, Symantec, tel
408-446-8886, fax [phone])


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

EC Opens Leased Phone Line Market 06/12/92
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1992 JUN 12 (NB) -- In its continuing battle
against individual government monopolies in the European telecom
marketplace, the European Commission (EC) has introduced
legislation to make it easier for companies to set up pan-
European networks for data-only applications.

The legislation, which will take effect in about a year,
effectively forces all telecom companies in Europe to sell their
services to whoever wants that service, and for there to be no
discriminatory pricing. This means, for example, that Deutches
Bundespost Telekom, the state-controlled German telecom company
which is not noted for its open market arrangements, must rent
its data lines to all comers, rather than favor any group of
companies.

Analysts are hailing the legislation as the first step in the
EC's Open Network Provision (ONP) for opening up the telecom
market in Europe. Many are waiting for similar arrangements for
voice and data lines, though the EC has said nothing about these
services.

(Steve Gold/19920611)


(CORRECTION)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00022)

Correction: Top Company BCE's Revenue C$19,884 Million 06/12/92
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1992 JUN 12 (NB) -- Revenue and
income figures for several Canadian companies reported recently in
Newsbytes were wrong, due partly to a typographical error in the
annual Top 500 report published by Canadian Business magazine.
Errors by Newsbytes complicated the confusion.

The magazine labelled columns of revenues and net income figures
as being in thousands of dollars when they were in fact in millions.

In a story reporting that BCE, the holding company that owns
Northern Telecom and Bell Canada, had replaced General Motors
Canada as the largest firm in Canada, BCE's 1991 revenue should
have read C$19,884 million. GM Canada's revenue was C$19,304
million. BCE's net income was C$1,329 million, while GM Canada's
was C$323.31 million (this figure was correct in the original story).

Also, Newsbytes should have given IBM Canada's revenue as C$6,255.0
million (not C$6.255 million), that of Telus as C$1,227.2 million,
and that of Rogers Communications as C$995.1 million. The figure
for Digital Equipment Canada should have been C$941.4 million. The
revenues of InterTan Canada were correctly reported as C$814.9
million.

Newsbytes should have seen that the figures as printed were out of
line, and must also take responsibility for our own errors, even
though they had the effect of cancelling out the typo in the table.
Apologies.

(Grant Buckler/19920601/Press Contact: Canadian Business,
416-364-4266, fax [phone])


(REVIEW)(APPLE)(SYD)(00023)

Review of: Apple Macintosh PowerBook 140 2/40, 06/12/92

From: Apple Computer, 20525 Mariana Avenue, Cupertino CA 95014-6299,
[phone]

Price: varies depending on retailer - average $US3199

PUMA Rating: 3.6 on a scale of 1=lowest to 4=highest

Reviewed for Newsbytes by: Sean McNamara 06/12/92

Summary: The PowerBooks represent the first offerings from Apple
which truly are in the laptop class. Incorporating many of the
design features of the Mac Portable, but with true laptop size and
weight, Apple is set to reap the benefits of giving users what they
want from a laptop. Increasing the entry level memory to 4MB
(megabytes) would be a major improvement.

======

REVIEW

======

There was a time when portable Mac computing meant either having a
concrete block on your lap, or using a third party solution. Many
users preferred to stay with Apple and cried out for a light,
powerful and reliable machine which would let them run their Mac
software when on the road. Despite its battery-saving features,
good screen and long lasting battery, the Portable was doomed to
failure, and Apple was sure to bring out realistic replacements.

Enter the PowerBook range. With the same battery saving features as
the Portable and a good screen on the 170, the PowerBooks have a
good start. But there's a lot more to these Macs. Apple has learned
its mistakes from the Portable, and the PowerBooks come across as a
generally well thought out line of laptop computers. This review
will concentrate on the PowerBook 140.

The PowerBook 140 is as compatible with normal Mac software as any
other Mac. There are some programs which won't work, but these will
dwindle in number as upgrades are released. Using the 140 is really
very much like having a full-blown Mac - the keyboard is full size,
the 40MB hard disk drive would be adequate for most users, a mouse
can be connected, internal modems are available, it has sound input
and output sockets, the normal modem and printer ports and
reset/interrupt switches, and an external hard disk drive interface.

Most of the time, users would use the trackball on the PowerBook,
rather than carry around a mouse. Although use of the trackball
takes a bit of getting used to, it does become as easy to use as the
mouse, and I found no trouble switching between the two.

Users may consider three types of utilities which may make the
transition to the PowerBook easier. The first is one which allows
the user to "tear-off" the menus and just click on the options in a
little "menu window." One of the hardest things to get used to with a
trackball is accessing the menu, and tear-off menus can help a lot.
An alternative to this is a utility which allows you to click on a
menu and have it stay open without needing to drag (menus operate
like this in Windows). Options are then selected by just clicking on
them (almost like a temporary stationary tear-off menu). The third
is a utility which allows keyboard navigation of dialog buttons and
marks. There are shareware versions of such utilities available, and
they are well worth the registration for the increased ease of use
they afford the PowerBook user (and in many cases, "normal" Mac
users).

Despite the lack of memory on the entry level machine, the PowerBook
is no slouch, operating as a whole at about four times the speed of a
Mac Classic (the PowerBook 140's processor is a 16MHz 68030).
Increased memory would improve this further by negating the need to
use Virtual Memory (which chews up battery life) and by allowing the
user to set up a RAM disk, which would not only speed performance,
but also cut battery use. The investment in memory is well worth it
considering the cost of memory, but more memory could really be
offered with minimal increase in price (no increase would make the
PowerBook even more attractive).

The system has been designed to give the maximum possible battery
life from the nickel cadmium battery, and, although adequate,
battery life is not as impressive as with the Mac Portable.
Incorporating the useful "sleep" feature saves battery power, and
the sleep settings are user-adjustable (and can be turned off if
desired). As the battery level reaches "reserve" power, the system
gives a warning dialog and automatically dims the screen slightly.

Putting the computer to sleep manually at this time until mains
power can be connected is a handy feature, as the state of the
computer is maintained, and when it is woken, the system is where it
was left. One minor hitch comes when plugging the power pack into
mains power. The pack is at a size where it cannot sit in a double
socket with another power cord plugged in next to it, and on some
single sockets the socket switch hampers the pack sitting in the
socket neatly. Some ways around this are: to use a short extension
lead; to use a 4-socket powerboard and lose a socket; or use the
external charger.

===========

PUMA RATING

===========

PERFORMANCE: 2.5. While the PowerBook 140 runs just about all Mac
software, its performance is severely hampered by the standard 2MB
of memory. Surely with System 7 taking up 1MB of this at its
leanest, and most programs requiring 2MB clear these days, 4MB would
be a more realistic entry-level, especially with the price of memory
these days.

USEFULNESS: 4. Mac users have been dreaming of a Mac laptop for
years now, and the wait was worth it. With the three models covering
most people's needs (and the PowerBook 140 being a nice middle-
ground machine), and with Apple using realistic pricing structures
for what they deliver, most users would be satisfied with what the
receive.

MANUAL: 4. Apple is renowned for its manuals, and the PowerBook is
a great example of why. With clear layout, numerous screen shots and
illustrations, and System 7's Balloon Help, users should have no
trouble working out the ins and outs of the PowerBook.

AVAILABILITY: 4. Supplies are said to be increasing, with no more than
a week's wait at most retailers.

(Sean McNamara/19920610)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(TOR)(00024)

 ****Wang Sues Japanese SIMM Vendors 06/12/92
LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1992 JUN 12 (NB) -- In the latest
installment of a patent battle that has gone on since 1989, Wang
Laboratories has filed lawsuits against the US subsidiaries of
two Japanese manufacturers and against three American companies.
Wang alleges that single in-line memory modules (SIMMs) made by the
companies violate two Wang patents.

Wang is suing Mitsubishi Electronics America and NMB Technologies,
the US subsidiaries of Mitsubishi Electric Corporation of Tokyo
and NMB Semiconductor of Chica, Japan.

Wang filed the complaint in US Federal District Court in
Alexandria, Virginia, seeking preliminary and permanent court
orders to stop both defendants from manufacturing, using, and
selling SIMMs in the United States. In addition, Wang seeks treble
monetary damages for Mitsubishi's and NMB's alleged infringement
and attorney's fees, contending their conduct has been willful.

The company also said it was about to file suits against American
Computer & Digital Components of Baldwin Park, California, Wintec
of Fremont, California, and Clearpoint of Hopkinton, Massachusetts.
Wang charged all three companies with infringing its SIMM patents,
and said further lawsuits can be expected.

The Wang patents cover the structure of a SIMM, a modular device
containing several memory chips. SIMMs are widely used in personal
computers and peripherals. The Wang patents are effective until the
year 2004.

Mitsubishi and NMB were among seven companies named in a complaint
that Wang filed with the United States' International Trade
Commission (ITC) in January. The others -- Fujitsu, Hitachi, Intel
Japan, Matsushita, and Oki, have signed licensing agreements with
Wang. Wang's complaint asked the ITC to ban the importation into
the United States of both SIMMs and products using SIMMs that
violate the Wang patents.

Wang said it has withdrawn the ITC complaint and asked the ITC to
end its investigation, preferring to pursue the last two companies
in court, where monetary damages are available. The ITC does not
grant monetary damages.

Wang has already signed licensing agreements with most of the
world's major manufacturers and distributors of SIMMs. As well as
those named above, they include Goldstar Electronic Co., Samsung
Electronics, and Siemens Components.

In the third quarter of last year, Wang reported $7.6 million in
income from patent royalties, primarily from SIMM patents, company
spokesman Ed Pignone told Newsbytes.

(Grant Buckler/19920612/Press Contact: Ed Pignone, Wang
Laboratories, 508-967-4912)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00025)

Systemhouse, BCE, Bell Canada Call It Off 06/12/92
OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1992 JUN 12 (NB) -- After extending
negotiations twice, integrator SHL Systemhouse, telephone company
Bell Canada and BCE, the holding company that owns Bell Canada as
well as Northern Telecom, have called off a strategic partnership
announced in February.

Had it been concluded, the deal would have involved Systemhouse
taking over the operation of Bell Canada's data center and offering
systems integration and outsourcing services to Bell Canada
customers. The two companies were also to create a joint venture to
sell computer systems and services to the telecommunications
industry worldwide.

Systemhouse was to buy some assets of Bell Canada for cash, while
BCE would have paid cash for enough Systemhouse shares to give it
60-percent ownership of the company. BCE currently has a
25.3-percent stake in Systemhouse.

The companies signed a memorandum of understanding February 6.
Details were to have been worked out by the end of April, but as
they failed to come to an agreement, the firms extended that
deadline first to May 15 and then to June 25.

After the mid-may extension, Harry W. Schlough, senior
vice-president of Systemhouse, told Newsbytes the financial details
of the agreement were essentially set and the companies were
working out legal details and "tuning" the agreement to meet
regulatory requirements.

Marcel Saint-Germain, a spokesman for BCE, said the obstacles to
the deal were management, business, and financial issues," and
would not be more specific. He did say, though, that human
resources, real estate, and marketing issues had been agreed upon.

In the wake of the agreement's collapse, BCE is reviewing its
25.3-percent ownership of Systemhouse, a move that officials said
could lead to that stake being sold, kept, or increased.

Saint-Germain said BCE reviews its investments regularly, and this
review "doesn't mean a specific thing."

BCE and Bell Canada have no plans to seek a similar arrangement
with some other partner, Saint-Germain added.

SHL Systemhouse reported revenues of C$700 million in 1991. It has
more than 3,000 employees. BCE, Canada's largest company, had
revenues of C$19,884 million in 1991. Aside from its
telecommunications holdings, BCE has interests in financial
services and other businesses.

(Grant Buckler/19920612/Press Contact: Harry W. Schlough,
Systemhouse, 416-366-4600; Marcel Saint-Germain, BCE, 514-499-7090)


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

Canadian Long-Distance Decision Expected Today 06/12/92
OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1992 JUN 12 (NB) -- The Canadian
Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is to
announce this afternoon whether long-distance telephone service in
Canada will be opened to competition.

A spokeswoman at the federal regulator's offices told Newsbytes the
decision on two applications to provide competitive long-distance
service will be announced at a 4:00 pm press conference.

In May, 1990, Unitel submitted its second application to compete
with most of Canada's regional telephone companies in providing
long-distance service. The company had been turned down in its
first bid, in 1985 when it was still named CNCP Telecommunications.

Between the denial of the first application and submission of the
present one, Rogers Communications of Toronto, a major player in
the cable television business, bought 40 percent of Unitel, putting
some extra capital behind the company.

Unitel is asking the CRTC to let it charge long-distance rates 15
percent below those of the telephone companies. Company spokesman
Peter Janecek said when the application was filed that the discount
would be necessary to induce customers to change services, and to
compensate for the inconvenience of dialing extra digits to place
a call through Unitel. The need for the extra digits can be
eliminated later, Janecek added.

In August, 1990, Toronto-based Lightel teamed up with B.C. Rail
Telecommunications and filed an application to offer its own
competitive long-distance telephone service. Though the initial
application covers only Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia --
Canada's three most populous provinces -- Thomas Elliot, president
of Lightel, told Newsbytes at the time that his company would like
to do business throughout the country.

Lightel is a spinoff of Call-Net Telecommunications, a Toronto firm
that resells telephone company services. BC Rail
Telecommunications offers private communications services using the
facilities of British Columbia Railway. Both companies own some
network facilities of their own, Elliot said; they would lease
additional lines from the telephone companies and Unitel
Communications of Toronto to run long-distance services.

(Grant Buckler/19920612/Press Contact: CRTC Information Services,
613-997-0313; Peter Janecek, Unitel, 416-232-6365; Thomas Elliot,
Lightel, 416-496-0166)


(NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00027)

IBM Unveils 486SLC2 Chip, Offers Upgrades 06/12/92
WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1992 JUN 12 (NB) -- IBM has
unveiled a second custom-built microprocessor, which will be
available this fall as an upgrade to two existing models in the
PS/2 line. The 486SLC2 builds on IBM's present 386SLC chip,
doubling its internal cache and using clock-doubling technology
like that in Intel's 80486DX2 chip.

IBM said that upgrading its mid-range Personal System/2 Models 56
and 57 with the new chip will roughly quadruple their performance.
The company also plans to use the chip as the basis of new PS/2
models in the future, company spokesman Michael Reiter said.

Reiter told Newsbytes the 486SLC2 is really an enhanced 386SLC,
though both the 386SLC and the new chip use the 486 instruction
set. Both chips were developed under an agreement with Intel that
gives IBM the right to enhance 386 technology to create its own
chip designs.

IBM also said a PS/2 powered by the 486SLC2 chip will perform up to
20 percent faster than a system using a 25-megahertz 486SX chip.
The 486SLC2 will be packaged similarly to the previously announced
PS/2 Cached Processor Option, an upgrade card designed for the
Models 56 and 57.

Customers who buy a Model 56 SLC or Model 57 SLC between June 11
and October 1, 1992, will be able to buy the 486SLC2 upgrade for
$259 when it is available -- subject to Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) approval -- in the fourth quarter. For other
buyers, the street price for the upgrade is expected to be in the
$600 range.

The 486SLC2 has 16K bytes of internal cache, twice that found in
the 386SLC, Reiter said. It also has an internal cache controller,
which IBM said improves performance by accessing data from high
speed cache memory rather than system memory whenever possible.
Clock doubling technology lets the chip run internally at twice the
external clock speed. In the 20-megahertz Models 56 and 57, that
means the 486SLC2 will run at 40 megahertz internally. The 486SLC2
also has power management and an optimized instruction set.

(Grant Buckler/19920612/Press Contact: Michael Reiter, IBM,
914-642-5368)


(NEWS)(IBM)(DEN)(00028)

 ****Compaq To Announce New Models Monday 06/12/92
HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1992 JUN 12 (NB) -- Compaq will announce a
new series of entry level PCs as well as some advanced technology on
its high end systems, a Compaq source told Newsbytes.

Included in the roll-out will be a low-cost desktop family which the
company is reportedly calling Prolenia, as well as the Contura
notebook family. Also expected are four new models in the Deskpro/I
line.

Compaq spokesperson John Sweney declined to discuss specific details
of the announcement but did confirm that articles in some computer
publications are correct. "The speculative articles that you have
seen have been reasonably accurate," said Sweney.

Sweney also confirmed that Compaq would announce price cuts on
existing models, but declined to discuss details. Earlier this month
the company announced price cuts on Systempro units of 20 percent.

Compaq, which several years ago had a reputation for quality, didn't
attempt to compete with the less expensive PC clones that flooded
the market. But in the past year, quality hasn't been enough. The
company has been forced into a position of having to do battle with
low-cost competitors such as Dell and AST. Compaq has said that it
will compete on price while maintaining quality.

As part of the business plan announced after Compaq's change in
leadership last October, the company said it would engage in a
vigorous ad campaign. Those ads are now appearing in various
publications. The ads, which run several full pages, talk about
engineering a lot. They don't talk much about features and
benefits.

One complete page, including text and a photo, talk about how a
Compaq notebook owner ran over the computer with her car. Whether
readers will take the time to read a twelve-page ad is questionable.

(Jim Mallory/19920612/Press contact: John Sweney, Compaq,
713-374-1564)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00029)

Microsoft Comfortable With 4Q Earnings Estimates 06/12/92
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1992 JUN 12 (NB) -- Microsoft's chief
financial officer says the company is "comfortable" with the Wall
Street earnings estimates for the fourth quarter.

Analysts estimated the company's shares will earn $1.00 to $1.05 for
the fourth quarter, up from the $0.73 earnings for the same quarter
last year. Some analysts estimated that Microsoft will achieve net
margins of 26 percent in fiscal 1993, but Microsoft CFO Francis
Gaudette said that earnings as a percentage of sales ratio would be
difficult to maintain.

Gaudette told investors at the Ragen MacKenzie investments
conference this week that Microsoft plans to launch 70 products in
fiscal '93, but said none of those is expected to have the same sales
growth momentum as did upgrades of existing programs that were
released in the last quarter of the past three fiscal years.

Gaudette also announced that Microsoft will open sales offices in
Eastern Europe and Russia by the end of fiscal '93, adding that he
sees no slowdown in worldwide sales. "We don't see any softening in
any of our markets at this time," Gaudette said.

He also said the company is confident it will get a favorable ruling
in the pending patent suit brought by Apple Computer. A hearing
scheduled earlier in the week was postponed. "It's possible that
the damages hearing will not be necessary, depending on the judges
rulings," Gaudette said.

Microsoft's stock experienced a sharp sell-off on Thursday,
apparently over concerns about net margins, then rebounded. The
stock closed at $108 Thursday, off $4.50. At today's opening it was
trading at $109.75.

(Jim Mallory/19920612)


(NEWS)(APPLE)(DEN)(00030)

New For Macintosh: Personal Press 2.0 From Aldus 06/12/92
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1992 JUN 12 (NB) -- Aldus Corporation
has announced that it has started shipping Personal Press 2.0 for
the Macintosh, a page layout program which allows the user to design
and assemble text and graphics automatically.

Personal Press was developed by Aldus subsidiary Silicon Beach
Software. According to product marketing manager Kathy David,
version 2.0 includes more than 50 design templates that help the
user automatically create documents. David said the automation of
the templates guides the user through the creation of a document
using their own text and graphics.

David said a copy-fitting feature automatically adjusts the font
size and spacing of text to fit the document into a designated
space. For example, if you could only allocate nine column inches for
an article in a newsletter, Personal Press 2.0 would make the
adjustments necessary to fit that space.

Personal Press 2.0 also has an autoflow feature that automatically
adds pages to a document to accommodate all the imported text and
pictures.

David said the recently announced Aldus Additions technology has
been incorporated into Personal Press, automating production tasks
such as the creation of drop caps, setting up bulleted text
paragraphs, and making enlarged pullquotes within the body of the
text.

Personal Press imports graphics in a variety of formats, including
PICT, TIFF, EPS, MacPaint, ThunderScan, and Aldus Digital Darkroom
Archive. It recognizes text files from most popular word processing
program, including Microsoft Word and Works, MacWrite, and text-only
ASCII.

The program is compatible with Apple's System 7, and supports Balloon
Help, Apple Events Subscribe, TrueType, 32-bit addressing, virtual
memory, and QuickTime movies.

Aldus said it is already shipping Personal Press, which carries a
price tag of $199. Registered owners of earlier versions can
upgrade for $39.99. The company said it will ship a Canadian
English version later this quarter, with European and Pacific Rim
versions due out at a later date.

To run Personal Press 2.0 you need any Macintosh with at least 1MB of
memory, System 6.0.3 or later, and a hard drive. Aldus recommends
at 2MB of RAM, and says a color monitor is required for viewing
color, but not for applying it.

(Jim Mallory/19920612/Press contact: Kathy Episcipo, Silicon Beach
Software, 619-695-6956)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(LAX)(00031)

 ****Media Vision Countersues Creative 06/12/92
FREMONT, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1992 JUN 12 (NB) -- Personal computer
sound card manufacturer Media Vision is responding to a lawsuit filed
against it by competitor Creative Technology by filing a suit of its
own in the Northern District Court of California in San Francisco.

The company says it is charging Creative Technology with restraint of
trade, unfair competition, and monopolization. Media Vision says it
has made its Thunder Board sound card compatible with the Sound
Blaster board from Creative Technology. However, Media Vision now
says Creative Technology introduced software that has caused some of
its Sound Blaster-compatible software to crash, making the Media
Vision sound board incompatible.

Creative Technology has the advantage of having its software drivers
supplied with Microsoft Windows 3.1. Other sound boards, then, can
offer their customers Windows compatibility if they can use the Sound
Blaster drivers.

The Creative Technology suit, filed May 29 against Media Vision,
claims Media Vision reverse engineered its Sound Blaster product in
order to produce the Thunderboard and charges copyright infringement.

Creative Technology is pointing to the pending case filed by video
game hardware manufacturer Sega against software manufacturer
Accolade as a similar case. The Sega suit charges Accolade with
reverse engineering, however Accolade says reverse engineering was
necessary to produce compatible products.

Media Vision announced, despite Creative Technology's claim to the
contrary, the Sega vs. Accolade case has nothing to do with the
current conflict. Despite that claim, Media Vision has engaged Thomas
F. Smegal as legal counsel, who the company claims is expert in
cases of this type.

In a paper entitled, "Reverse Engineering of Software Scrunitized In
Sega," Smegal says the Sega vs. Accolade suit "... is the strongest
challenge yet to what seems to have been a widely held assumption in
the law that a reverse engineer may make fixed "interum" copies of a
copyrighted program so long as the final product is non-infringing."
Smegal says criticism levied at the Sega vs. Accolade case contends
that only the final product that is sold on the market or used in a
functional manner should be scrutinized for copyright infringement.

The Sega vs. Accolade case seems to be a major deciding point in the
computer industry and one whose decision may effect the future of the
industry as a whole. The American Committee for Interoperable Systems
(ACIS) which includes companies such as Chips and Technologies,
Phoenix Technologies, Seagate Technology, Zenith Data Systems, and
Sun Microsystems, has publicly endorsed Accolade's position. Peter
Choy, chairman of ACIS and deputy general counsel of Sun Microsystems
said: "The life blood of the computer industry is the ability of any
competitor to make and distribute interoperable software and
hardware."

In conjunction with the suit against Creative Technology, Media
Vision has also announced it is licensing its Pro Audiospectrum sound
technology for use by any software or hardware developer at no
charge. Despite the seeming contradiction between Media Vision's
announcement of free licensing to developers for its technology and
it's claim that it should be able to interoperate with Creative
Technology's hardware without licensing, the company says it is
interested in open systems. "We live in an era of open computer
architectures. Ultimately, we want the end user to win," said Jain.

(Linda Rohrbough/19920612/Press Contact: Abigail Johnson, Roeder-
Johnson for Media Vision, tel [phone], fax [phone])