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/1992/nb921207

Text File | 1992-12-07 | 69KB | 1,518 lines

(NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00001)

Mitsubishi Joins Worldwide Mobile Phone Project 12/07/92
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1992 DEC 7 (NB) -- Mitsubishi Electric will join a
worldwide mobile phone service currently planned by Washington-based
AMSC and Canada's TMI.

The service will cover car phones, mobile phones, trucks, trains,
ships and aircraft. Under the agreement, Mitsubishi will produce
the phones for this system.

The project was initiated by US-based aerospace firm Hughes Group
and is being led by Canada's TMI. Both groups are planning to launch
two space satellites in 1994 which will be used in the service
starting in October of that year.

Initial mobile phone service will be provided in North America,
Mexico, Alaska and Hawaii. Mitsubishi Electric will manufacture
the telephones for this service, and will market them under its
own brand name. The firm is also expected to supply telephones
to the groups on an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) basis.

The phones will be equipped with a 30-cm antenna and a powerful
battery as they are expected to consume massive amounts of
electricity when linked to telecom satellites. The phones
will be as small as existing regular mobile phones. It is expected
that about 1 million units will be sold by the year 2000.

The project led by AMSC and TMI will cost about 90 billion yen
($750 million), a far smaller amount than is being spent on Motorola's
Iridium project -- Motorola is spending 400 billion yen ($3 million)
to launch 66 space satellites. The major reason why the AMSC project
is less expensive is that AMSC and TMI will use far more ground-based
telecom transmission systems.

(Masayuki "Massey" Miyazawa/199211207/Press Contact: Mitsubishi
Electric, [phone], Fax, [phone])


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00002)

Japan: Fujitsu To Mass Produce 16M DRAM 12/07/92
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1992 DEC 7 (NB) -- Fujitsu is gearing up to create
a larger assembly line for 16-megabit dynamic random access memory
(DRAM) at its plant in Iwate, in northern Japan. Fujitsu anticipates
a surge in demand for the powerful new devices next year.

The new production line has a monthly output capacity of 200,000 units
and should be complete next month, January 1993. Fujitsu is
currently making 16-megabit DRAM at its Mie plant which is turning
out 100,000 units per month. The firm is planning to ship
200,000 units of the chip per month this coming spring.

With the completion of new 16-megabit DRAM production lines,
Fujitsu's Iwate plant will have the capacity to produce all
levels of chips including 1-megabit and 4-megabit DRAMs.

Other Japanese chip firms are also preparing to ship more 16-
megabit DRAM chips and are shipping an average of 50,000 to 100,000
units per month. Market demand for the chip is expected to
grow significantly next year, leading many chip firms to project
monthly shipments of 500,000 units by the end of 1993.

This is good news for Japanese chips makers, which have suffered
from a major slump in the industry. The Tokyo Stock Exchange market
reflects this optimism and high tech stock prices are recovering
gradually.

(Masayuki "Massey" Miyazawa/19921207/Press Contact: Fujitsu, +81-
3-3215-5236)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00003)

Japan: Automatic Telephone Operator Developed 12/07/92
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1992 DEC 7 (NB) -- KDD and Asahi-kasei have jointly
developed an automatic computer-based telephone operator which will
automatically answer customer inquiries. The voice recognition
level is extremely high, according to the firms.

Japan's former international telecom monopoly and Japan's high
tech firm Asahi-kasei recently developed the system to
replace human telephone operators. Two firms have already tested
the system, and say it is working well.

The prototype system is for a firm with 170 employees, four
departments, and 17 divisions. When the caller tells the division
and the name of the person to whom he or she wishes to speak, the
system will call, or answer the extension number if need be.

The new system has a voice recognition level of almost 99 percent,
according to KDD. The system is programmed to recognize voice
pitch and wavelengths of a variety of human voices -- 16 have been
preprogrammed into the system.

The system can also recognize speech even if it is slightly
distorted by background noise, the companies say.

The actual release date of the system has not been disclosed as KDD
and Asahi-kasei want to further develop it to recognize everyday
conversation. Both firms are also thinking of developing an automatic
telephone conversation translation machine based on this system
in the future.

(Masayuki "Massey" Miyazawa/19921207/Press Contact: KDD, +81-3-
3347-6934, Fax, [phone])


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00004)

Quitaque, Texas The First Wireless City 12/07/92
QUITAQUE, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1992 DEC 7 (NB) -- Interdigital has
used one of its UltraPhone switches to make Quitaque, in north
Texas, the first "wireless city," offering all wired phone
services from a digital cellular switch. GTE made the cut-over
for the city of about 500.

Quitaque, pronounced "Kit-A-Way," had been served by a
traditional telephone exchange, from a small analog central
office switch serving wires to customers' homes. That switch has
been turned off and the wires and cable disconnected. The new
switch will mean lower costs, and a higher level of service,
according to Mayor Elgin Connor. Since the GTE service is
digital, not analog, conversations remain private. Haviland
Telephone Company of Kansas plans to install similar wireless
cities in early 1993.

InterDigital, which holds patents for the Time Division Multiple
Access, or TDMA, system used in the Quitaque Ultraphone network,
recently purchased a company giving it rights to Broadband Code
Division Multiple Access, or B-CDMA, technology. Newsbytes
discussed both events with vice president, David Smith.

"TDMA is the best technology for spread-spectrum telephone use,"
Smith insisted, adding that the company has no plans to switch
from TDMA to CDMA in its UltraPhone. "It's the most efficient way
to utilize spectrum. But CDMA has some applications. It works
well in data and video applications. Probably because of B-CDMA's
ability not to interfere with other signals, it will be best in
PCNs," microwave-based cellular networks.

"But we don't see CDMA getting into areas like cellular where we
now operate -- most experts including the government agree that
TDMA is the most efficient technology. We see CDMA in mini-cells
for PCN service and we're putting it before TIA for
standardization in cellular."

The advantage of B-CDMA over a competing CDMA algorithm offered
by Qualcomm, which has equity investments from Pacific Telesis
and NYNEX, was also discussed by Smith. "We see B-CDMA used as an
overlay. You can overlay it over TDMA and analog without
interference. That means the cellular operators could get into
the PCN business before 2 GHz operating licenses are given, by
re-utilizing the 20 MHz of frequency they now have, using B-
CDMA."

(Dana Blankenhorn/19921204/Press Contact: David L. Smith,
InterDigital, 215-278-7831)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00005)

Data Times Offers CNN Transcripts 12/07/92
OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA, U.S.A., 1992 DEC 7 (NB) -- Transcripts
from 50 programs carried by the Cable News Network are now
available electronically through the DataTimes international
information network. The contract is not exclusive, noted CNN
spokesman Steve Haworth to Newsbytes, and the company is getting
the data on a satellite feed from Journal Graphics, which has
contracts to transcribe CNN programs and offer the transcripts.

DataTimes said that the CNN transcripts and other sources
available its system can be searched simultaneously using a
technique called "global searching." DataTimes said no other
information service in the world offers such a broad global
searching capability. The full-text transcripts of the CNN
programs are added to the worldwide DataTimes network 24 hours
after first broadcast by CNN. Transcripts of programs back to
January 1, 1991, are stored as well. Included are transcripts
from both regular CNN programs -- such as CNN Prime News, Inside
Politics, Moneyline, Larry King Live and Evans and Novak -- and
scores of special CNN programs, such as the recent US
political conventions and presidential debates. Transcripts from
virtually all future major special events coverage will be added
to the DataTimes network. CNN's sports and weather coverage are
not included.

Haworth noted that the Nexis service also distributes CNN
transcripts obtained from Journal Graphics.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19921204/Press Contact: CNN, Steve Haworth,
404-827-1547)


(NEWS)(IBM)(DEN)(00006)

New For PC: Automated Disk Management Software 12/07/92
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1992 DEC 7 (NB) -- Chili Pepper Software
is now shipping Infinite Disk for DOS, a software utility that the
company says automates disk management chores and maximizes disk
space.

Infinite Disk for DOS uses a hierarchical storage management system
that is common in mainframe installations. Its level 1 migration
automatically compresses and/or relocates files based on how long a
file has not been accessed. Level 2 migration moves the file
off-line to another DOS device, such as a floppy disk, Floptical
disk, or removable hard drive. Both delay periods are user-selectable.

Company President Richard Onyon told Newsbytes that a
later version will migrate files to a tape drive. He says the
company is presently working with a well-known tape manufacturer to
develop that technology.

Even after the file has been migrated by Infinite Disk, the file
continues to appear as if it's on the online storage device such as
the hard drive. When a migrated file is opened, it is automatically
de-compressed or recalled from the off-line media.

Onyon told Newsbytes that the program also adds another directory
command, "IDIR" which will display a conventional DOS directory and,
in an additional column, a Chili Pepper directory of information
about when the file was last accessed, where it is archived, and
when it was migrated.

According to Onyon, Infinite Disk will change the way people use
computers. "With the industry advances in operating systems and
storage devices, there is no reason why PC users should be burdened
with file and disk management," he says. He says the company's
research shows that about 70 percent of the files on a PC hard drive
are never used again. Yet few users take the time to archive
seldom-used files, frequently preferring to install a larger hard
disk. "Infinite Disk solves this dilemma and finally lets the user
get on with being productive," says Onyon.

Infinite Disk for DOS supports systems running under DOS 4.0 or
higher, and is available directly from Chili Pepper Software for
$189. The company is offering the program for $89 until the end of
January 1993 as an introductory offer. Onyon says the program is 100
percent Windows 3.x compatible, but expects to release a Windows
version during the first quarter of 1993. Versions for OS/2 and
Novell Netware are expected to ship during the second quarter of '93.
The company says it plans additional products including intelligent
file back-up, physical drive monitoring, and disk optimization.

(Jim Mallory/19921204/Press contact: Richard Onyon, Chili Pepper
Software, 800-395-1812, fax [phone])


(NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00007)

New For PC: HydraWorks Delivers Mail, Fax, Video 12/07/92
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA, 1992 DEC 7 (NB) -- Kalman
Technologies Inc., has launched HydraWorks, which will allow
personal computer users to exchange voice, facsimile, data, and
video messages over one phone line.

The hardware-software combination offers a voice mail facility,
data communications, and the ability to transmit full-motion
video to another HydraWorks-equipped PC using a compression
algorithm based on fractals.

The video feature will not be available until the first half of
1993, said Steve Swift, president of Kalman. The other features
are available now, at an introductory price of US$695.

HydraWorks has optical character recognition (OCR) capability
built-in, allowing it to take documents scanned using an
ordinary fax machine and convert them to machine-readable text,
company officials said. This builds on Kalman's earlier product,
the ScanFax card, which allowed a fax machine to be used as a
graphics scanner. HydraWorks can also convert fax files to PCX,
TIF, BIN, and CTF file formats.

HydraWorks also supports multiple voice mailboxes and storing and
forwarding of voice files.

The card can act as a network fax, data, and voice-messaging
server, the company said. It shares a phone line with a standard
fax machine.

Functions are controlled by a built-in command language called
MediaScript.

(Grant Buckler/19921203/Press Contact: Steve Swift or Kelly
Ransom, Kalman Technologies, 604-684-3118; Public Contact: Kalman
Technologies, 604-684-6999)


(NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00008)

Personal Pen Pal For Pens/Notebooks 12/07/94
LOS GATOS, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1992 DEC 7 (NB) -- Pen Pal
Associates has released application development software aimed at
pen/notebook "convertible" computers, starting with the GRiD
Convertible announced at Comdex last month.

In an interview with Newsbytes, Carol Hankins, product manager,
said that the new Personal Pen Pal is an easier to use, less
expensive version of the company's Power Pen Pal.

Hankins told Newsbytes that both packages allow for development
of DOS-based programs that can also be run under Microsoft
Windows, PenDOS, or Microsoft Windows for Pen.

But where Power Pen Pal is targeted at VARs and ISVs, Personal
Pen Pal is geared to personalized applications, she suggested.

Personal Pen Pal lacks some of the more advanced programming
features of Power Pen Pal, but adds templates for such purposes
as calendars and expense reports, she explained. The templates
can be used straight out of the box or tailored to suit the needs
of particular applications.

Templates and other features are designed to allow for
development of keyboard-based programs, as well as applications
that take advantage of the enhanced input and manipulation
capabilities of pen computing.

"One of the hardware platforms we had in mind in designing
Personal Pen Pal was the new GRiD Convertible. We also expect to
see other convertibles coming down the line," Hankins reported to
Newsbytes.

Program capabilities include forms design, definition of records
and databases, specification of communications and print
operations, and application testing.

Personal Pen Pal is based on a proprietary scripting language
similar to English, according to Hankins. Extensive context
sensitive help is provided, making the program simple to use for
any user with a minimal programming background. This background
might include a junior college-level course in programming, or
experience in writing Lotus macros, she illustrated.

One programming feature present in Power Pen Pal but absent from
Personal Pen Pal is the ability to develop subforms, or series of
forms containing many of the same objects and elements, the
product manager said.

The templates included in Personal Pal Pal will be available for
downloading from Compuserve, she noted.

Personal Pen Pal is priced at $395. Power Pen Pal is priced at
$995 for a developer's license, plus varying runtime fees.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19921204; Press contact: Kenneth J. Roberts,
New Futures World Marketing for Pen Pal Associates, tel 415-324-
9296; Reader contact: Charles W. Ryle, Pen Pal Associates, tel
415-903-3850)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00009)

 ****Wireless DataComm'92 Conference Opens In Boston 12/07/92
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1992 DEC 7 (NB) -- Wireless DataComm
'92, a conference and expo that brings together the communications
and computer industries in a very big way, gets off the ground
today in Boston.

The three-day show, sponsored by Communications Events Inc.,
offers 24 sessions on such areas as technology, markets,
applications, regulation and standards, plus dozens of product
displays representing the wide spectrum of possibilities within the
wireless field.

Opening day activities revolve around a series of half-day tutorials,
along with the opening of the exhibition floor. Tutorial topics
range from a general overview of technologies, products and
applications to such specialized offerings as "Portable Information
Services for Wireless Personal Computers" and "Batteries and Power
Management for Wireless Data Communications."

IBM, Ardis, Embarc, RAM Mobile Data, Ex Machina, AT&T/NCR are only
a few of the big names that are on the exhibition
floor, an area well stocked with wireless equipment large and
small. Products on display include radio modems, base
stations and towers, pen and palmtop computers, message switches,
in-vehicle mobile data terminals, network infrastructure equipment,
and much more.

The expo component continues though Tuesday, a day when a
jointly delivered keynote speech will bring the collaborative
nature of the show into fine focus. Earle Maudlin, group
president - Mobile Systems, BellSouth Enterprises and Jerry Kaplan,
co-founder and chairman, GO Corp., talk on the subject,
"The Convergence of Communications and Portable Computing."

Tuesday and Wednesday of Wireless Datacomm '92 will feature a total
of 16 shorter, 1 1/4-hour sessions on a sweeping variety of
wireless issues. Sample titles include "Handheld Computer, Personal
Digital Assistants: An Emerging Paradigm," "Channels of
Distribution for Wireless Devices," and "Satellites and Terrestrial
Based Systems for Wide Area Data Applications."

(Jacqueline Emigh/19921207; Press and public contact:
Communications Events Inc., tel 800-322-WDEC)


(NEWS)(IBM)(LAX)(00010)

Clipper Offers Bunch Of Tools 12/07/92
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1992 DEC 7 (NB) -- Clipper is
still alive and well and tools for the database application
product abound. Third party applications to add graphics
capability, word processing, libraries that support popular SQL
servers, and a decompiler are being offered.

Flipper 6.0, from Proworks, is the latest release of a library
to add graphics to Clipper applications. Flipper offers a
computer aided-design-like interface that is time consuming to
use at a low level, but does allow the creation of vector
objects such as circles, boxes, polylines, and text. The
product has all the low-level functions necessary to create
graphical screens. For example, a developer could display data
gathered in real-time in an on-screen graph.

New functions include: a virtual memory system; the ability to
scale, rotate, shear, and mirror object groups or individual
objects; improved color printer support; an interrupt-driven
event handler, and the ability to display data in two or three
dimensions.

Flipper 6.0 is compatible with Clipper Summer '87, Clipper 5.0,
and Clipper 5.01. The product is retail priced at $349.

Word Wrapper is an alternative to Clipper memo fields from
Strategic Edge. The product is a small word processor that
stores text directly in .DBF database fields and allows word
wrapping, automatic paragraph reformatting, windowing, vertical
scrolling, copy, move, search and replace, and zoom in and out
functionality. Strategic Edge says the product also works with
Foxpro, Foxbase, and dBASE IV applications.

A companion product to Word Wrapper, Word Wrapper Toolbox,
offers the ability to add spell checking from a 60,000-word
dictionary, mail merge, relational query-by-example, memo
output formatting, a multimemo editor, an ASCII text formatter,
memo width reformatting, word counting, and list browsing
capability to Clipper applications.

A procedure and user-defined function (UDF) library is also offered
which includes: record locking; recovery from a printer, disk access,
or multiuser error; word wrapping from a long string to several
shorter strings; and managing a pop-up scrollable pick-list of
field names. Both products are royalty-free and Toolbox is $99,
while Word Wrapper is $99.

Aladdin Publishing has announced ClipSQL Libraries for
accessing structured query language (SQL) database servers.
Three libraries offer support for the popular SQL servers: one
for Microsoft and Sybase servers, one for the Oracle server,
and one for the Gupta Sqlbase server.

ClipSQL supports all SQL command and allows retrieval, update,
or delete rows and create or delete tables. Working source code
samples are provided as well.

The royalty-free product works with both Clipper Summer '87 and
Clipper 5.01. Aladdin says the ClipSQL applications are
portable so all is required is the compilation with the
appropriate library -- no code changes are necessary.

Aladdin is also offering Unclip, a decompiler for Summer '87
Clipper applications. The company says Unclip is useful for
times when modifications need to be made, but the source code
to the application has been lost.

The product changes executable Clipper applications back into
readable source code and the company says it is able to address
all Clipper compatible linkers. Libraries addressed during the
linking phase are also converted back into source code and no
pass code is required to decompile an application according to
Aladdin.

Aladdin says Unclip is offered with a 30-day money back
guarantee for a retail price of $295.

(Linda Rohrbough/19921204/Press Contact: Leigh Conner, Irwin
Ink, tel [phone], fax [phone]; Susan Prothero,
Proworks, tel [phone]; David Lewis, Strategic Edge, tel
415-563-3755; Brad Codd, Aladdin, tel [phone], fax 223-
6199)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00011)

 ****Everex Quietly Lays Off More Workers 12/07/92
FREMONT, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1992 DEC 7 (NB) -- Following
extensive job cuts in August and September, Everex has
reportedly been cutting its work force by up to 500 workers
during October and November. If confirmed, the cuts have been
made without an official public announcement.

According to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle, Everex
cut 250 in October, and between 200 and 250 people in November.

Everex has been bordering on bankruptcy for some time. The
company has been hit hard by the PC hardware price wars
initiated by Compaq a few months ago. All the major PC
manufacturers followed suit to remain competitive, slashing
profit margins in the process.

According to the Chronicle, federal law states that all layoffs
totaling 500 workers must be publicly reported if they occur
within a 30-day period. The latest round of layoffs may not
total 500, or they may be more than 30 days apart.

The last round of official layoffs from Everex took place on
September 15, as reported by Newsbytes. At the time the
company said it planned to reduce its worldwide workforce by
about 12 percent, or 250 people.

Anne Butler, spokesperson for Everex, who has since left the
company, in September told Newsbytes that the layoffs were
"worldwide....but the bulk of the people work here in Fremont
so I'm sure the bulk of the reductions will be here." The
workforce reductions in September followed a similar move in
early August.

At the time Butler told Newsbytes that "there are no plans
[for further reductions]. "The key factor here is that prices are
continuing to drop, and as gross margins in the industry continue
to drop, we need to trim operating expenses. So we don't have any
plans at this time....but we'll do what we have to do...but we
don't have anything else planned."

A company spokesperson claimed she was unauthorized to
comment on the reported layoffs. No one else was available by
Newsbytes press time to confirm or deny the layoffs.

(Ian Stokell/19921207/Press Contact: Mike Walen, Everex
Systems, 800-821-0806)


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

Security Alarm Scheme Achieved Without ISDN 12/07/92
TRENTON, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1992 DEC 7 (NB) -- One promise of
ISDN (integrated services digital network) is alarm monitoring, in
which phone lines control burglar and fire alarms. Versus Technology
is selling that capability without ISDN, and it's getting support
from major phone companies.

Versus calls its system Versus Derived Channel Multiplex Alarm
Service. Using the technology, alarm signals are sent from a
protected location to a monitoring facility using ordinary
telephone lines, with security against cut lines or other
attempts to prevent an alert from being sent.

Versus says Raynet will include support for its system in its
LOC-2 fiber-in-the-loop product line. Raynet has a major contract
with Ameritech to provide fiber components for use in its local
telephone network in the Midwest.

New York Telephone, a division of NYNEX, is also distributing
over five million bill inserts advertising the technology to
residential service customers in New York City and its suburbs.
The inserts describe a three-month connection charge waiver for
the service, which it calls Pulsenet. New York Tel has already
sent the mailing to over 600,000 business customers. Bill inserts
cost the company little, and New York Tel calls them "a proven
and successful way to market products and services to the mass
market." A toll-free number is also offered which directs callers
to local alarm dealers or authorized monitoring company. So far,
the Versus equipment has been installed in over 200 NYNEX central
offices. The company's New England Telephone unit also plans to
install the equipment in Massachusetts.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19921207/Press Contact: Versus Technology, John
Mischak Jr., 609/586-4091)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00013)

Telecom Firm ITI Wins Debt Forgiveness 12/07/92
DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1992 DEC 7 (NB) -- International
Telecharge, once a high-flying operator services company, won
debt restructuring agreements it claims forgive $8.7 million in
its debt.

A major business weekly recently profiled the company, saying
Chairman Ronald J. Haan has found ways to personally profit from
continuing the operations. In the latest deal, the company
promised to pay $23 million in debt over five years and $2.5 million
of debt over two years, subject to promissory notes plus interest
at 8 percent along with an agreement to forgive another $17.6
million of debt contingent once the promissory notes are paid and
other conditions are met.

The major creditors in this case are WilTel, which provides long
distance services, Northern Telecom, which provides switches and
other equipment, and R. Haan Ventures, Haan's own management
outfit. Another Haan company, Oncor Communications, advanced $2.5
million in revenue payments under the deal, also guaranteeing
payment of two notes to Northern Telecom and another to WilTel.
Yet another company owned by Haan, Long Distance Communications
Acquisitions, has an agreement to acquire International
Telecharge, which a year ago acquired Telesphere, once the
fourth-largest US long distance company. Telesphere declined
on the collapse of the caller-paid 900 number business, where
it was a major operator of numbers.

Does this mean Northern Telecom and WilTel will finally be paid?
The release from ITI ends this way. "Notwithstanding the
completion of the debt restructuring agreements, there can be no
assurance that ITI will have sufficient cash flow and
forbearances to be able to meet its various debt and lease
obligations -- a number of which remain in default -- or to make
timely monthly payments under the restructured debt, in which
case the company may be required to seek protection under the
federal bankruptcy laws."

(Dana Blankenhorn/19921207/Press Contact: Phil Sawyer,
International Telecharge, 214-653-1265)


(NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00014)

Lotus Ships 1-2-3 for DOS 3.4 12/07/92
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1992 DEC 7 (NB) -- Lotus
Development has begun shipping 1-2-3 for DOS Release 3.4,
an upgrade to the three-dimensional version of its spreadsheet
for the DOS operating system.

Highlights of the new release include Lotus' SmartIcon
technology, improved performance, new graph types and DataLens
drivers, and an improved installation procedure.

Lotus claimed that industry standard benchmarks show 1-2-3 for
DOS Release 3.4 offers as much as 50 percent better performance
in key spreadsheet operations, making it the fastest spreadsheet
available for DOS users. Customers can expect to see an average
25-percent improvement in key spreadsheet operations, Lotus said.

The new release also comes with SmartIcons, a device for quick
access to common operations that Lotus pioneered with the
Microsoft Windows version of 1-2-3. SmartIcons is also available
with Release 2.4, the two-dimensional DOS version of 1-2-3
announced earlier this year, a spokeswoman for the company noted.

Release 3.4's suite of SmartIcons includes 3D-specific
functionality such as 3D SmartSum and perspective display.

The product features simplified documentation, allows direct
selection of data with a mouse, and uses the delete key to delete
the contents of the currently-selected cell or range.

New graphing features include true three-dimensional line, bar,
area, and pie charts, table charts, and the ability to add drop
shadow effects to bar graphs.

A macro trace capability lets users view macro code as it is
executed. Graph and print setting sheets display current options
associated with a task, helping users to keep track of the
choices they have made, Lotus said. Release 3.4 can also
automatically load any specified worksheet when 1-2-3 is started.

Lotus has also added to its Backsolver goal-seeking technology
the ability to change multiple variables simultaneously.

Release 3.4 features new and improved DataLens drivers, including
new dBASE III and IV drivers, improved Paradox driver, and a new
SQL Server driver. New and improved printer drivers have also
been added.

International English, German, and French versions of the package
are due to be widely available the week of December 14 where those
languages are spoken. Spanish, Dutch, Italian, and Danish
versions are due to be available in early 1993.

Based on industry trade association data, Lotus estimates its
revenue share of the DOS spreadsheet market exceeded 90 percent
in the third quarter. The company does not release data on how
that share splits between Release 2.x and Release 3.x, the
spokeswoman said. Lotus has acknowledged that its share of the
competitive Windows spreadsheet market is somewhat less and is
unlikely to exceed 50 percent.

1-2-3 for DOS Release 3.4 requires a DOS PC with an 80286 or
higher microprocessor, one megabyte of available system memory, a
hard disk and DOS 3.0 or higher. For what you see is what you get
(WYSIWYG) display a total of 1.5 megabytes of system memory is
recommended.

The suggested retail price is $595, and a license (without disk
and documentation) is available for $535. Licensed 1-2-3 and
Quattro Pro for DOS users can upgrade at a suggested retail price
of $150. Lotus is offering a free copy of Norton Desktop for DOS
Starter Edition with Release 3.4 upgrades.

(Grant Buckler/19921207/Press Contact: Bryan Simmons, Lotus
Development, 617-693-1697; Toni Mattucci or Karen Schiff,
McGlinchey & Paul for Lotus, 617-862-4514)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00015)

Corel, Buslogic Sign SCSI Product Agree't 12/07/92
OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1992 DEC 7 (NB) -- Corel Corp. and
BusLogic Inc., have announced a long-term partnership. BusLogic, a
Santa Clara, California, maker of Small Computer Systems
Interface (SCSI) hardware, will distribute and support CorelSCSI
software with its products.

Aimed at value-added resellers, systems integrators, and original
equipment manufacturers (OEMs), CorelSCSI for BusLogic works with
BusLogic's line of SCSI host adapters and supports its SCSI
device drivers for DOS, Microsoft Windows, the Novell NetWare
local-area network operating system, and OS/2.

Due to be available in January through BusLogic distributors,
CorelSCSI for BusLogic will have a list price of US$99 or C$119,
the companies said.

Corel said its SCSI software, combined with BusLogic's high
performance SCSI host adapter, allows the transparent integration
of all major SCSI peripherals to Novell NetWare file servers,
Windows and DOS-based systems. One host adapter can support as
many as seven SCSI peripherals, such as hard drives, compact disk
read-only memory (CD-ROM) and other optical storage devices, and
tape drives.

CorelSCSI also includes tape back-up software, CD-Audio, as well
as other tools to let the user customize the performance of the
SCSI peripherals.

Corel, which is best known for its CorelDraw graphics software,
stopped making its own SCSI interface card late in 1991, choosing
to concentrate on the software business. The company now has
alliances with five SCSI hardware manufacturers -- the others are
Always, Adaptec, Distributed Processing Technology, and Future
Domain -- and "there'll be a lot of agreements with other
companies that have host adapters," said Janie Sullivan, a Corel
spokeswoman.

(Grant Buckler/19921207/Press Contact: Janie Sullivan, Corel,
613-728-8200 ext. 1672; Charles Sommerhauser or Paige Burgener,
Walt & Sommerhauser for BusLogic, 408-496-0900; Victoria
Koepnick, BusLogic, 408-492-9090)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00016)

Discreet Logic Drops Eddie, Will Focus On Own Software 12/07/92
MONTREAL, QUEBEC, CANADA, 1992 DEC 7 (NB) -- Discreet Logic,
Inc., has stopped distributing Eddie, a video visual effects
software package from Animal Logic of Sydney, Australia. The
Montreal company will concentrate on its own Flame and Inferno
video software.

Discreet Logic and Animal Logic called off their distribution
deal "by mutual agreement," Discreet Logic officials said, and
the Australian company is expected to name a new Canadian
distributor shortly.

Launched in September, Flame is a digital editing and image
processing software package that runs on Silicon Graphics VGX
workstations. The software is meant for professional film and
video production, a spokeswoman for the company said.

Inferno, also a digital editing and image processing package,
will be designed to take advantage of the Reality Engine, a
graphics processing subsystem which Silicon Graphics unveiled at
this year's SIGGRAPH show.

The Reality Engine is expected to be available early in 1993, and
no target date has been revealed for shipping Inferno, the
spokeswoman said.

(Grant Buckler/19921207/Press Contact: Pat Hunter, Artemis Hunter
Public Relations for Discreet Logic, 613-247-0588, fax
613-247-0589)


(NEWS)(UNIX)(DEN)(00017)

PC-To-Unix/VMS Remote Control Software 12/07/92
BEAVERTON, OREGON, U.S.A., 1992 DEC 7 (NB) -- Field personnel can
now access Unix or VMS/based host computers with PCs with software
introduced this month by Network Computing Devices (NCD).

The company says its PC-XView with PC-Xremote program is designed to
turn a PC into an X Windows system server that allows PC users not
connected to a local area network (LAN) to access hosts that support
X using a modem or through an RS-232 serial port direct connection.
The remote Unix or VMS applications can be run and viewed
simultaneously with local PC applications.

The program is available immediately for both DOS and Windows-based
PCs. The company said it created the package by removing standard
LAN driver support from its PC-Xview X server and integrating its
XRemote protocol stack.

NCD Vice President John Moreland says the program addressed two
trends: the increasing presence of X in the corporate workplace as a
means to integrate PC and Unix applications, as well as the growing
number of telecommuting workers.

PC-Xremote is based on the XRemote technology developed by NCD in
1990 to handle the high bandwidth demands of graphics-oriented X
Windows system environments. The company says Xremote uses data
compression techniques to provide serial communication at roughly
10 times the speed of the widely used serial line internet protocol
(SLIP). XRemote was donated to the X Consortium in 1992 to be used
as the basis for development of an industry standard for
low-bandwidth X communications. The standard is expected to be
incorporated into the X11 release 6 core software in early 1994.

NCD says XRemote is available on a variety of hardware platforms,
including those from Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, Digital
Equipment Corporation, and IBM. It also runs on terminal servers
from Cisco Systems and Xyplex, allowing remote PC users to call
into modem pools and eliminating the need for host-based software.

PC-Xview users using DOS or Windows-based PCs can move easily
between the X and PC environments, and users of PC-Xview for
Windows can cut and paste between X and Windows. The company says
all current versions of Windows are supported, as well as Windows
NT. The program has a suggested retail price of $525 for both
PC-Xview with LAN support and the PC-Xremote option.

(Jim Mallory/19921207/Press contact:L Judy Estrin, Network Computing
Devices, 415-694-0650; Reader contact: NCD, 503-641-2200)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00018)

Egghead Offers To Manage Your Software 12/07/92
ISSAQUAH, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1992 DEC 7 (NB) -- Keeping track of
software licensing is becoming a greater challenge to users as
software makers and industry associations crack down on cheaters.
But Egghead Software says it has a solution to the problem.

The software discount retailer has introduced its Software Asset
Management (SAM) service that it says is designed to help
corporations and government agencies regain control of their
software assets.

According to Dennis Zook, Egghead executive vice president of
operations, "The proliferation of computers in today's workplace
makes it more important than ever for companies to manage software
like any other asset." Zook also points out that often software is
purchased by individual employees rather than centrally. As a
result companies have a hodgepodge of software products on their
hands that is difficult and costly to maintain and track. "You can't
just move these products from expense ledgers to depreciation
worksheets and say you've solved the problem," says Zook.

At its bottom level, SAM offers a "do-it-yourself" approach, with
the user's staff conducting the audit following the steps outlined
in Egghead's "Guide to Software Asset Management." Egghead
spokesperson Megan McKenzie told Newsbytes Egghead technical experts
provide guidance for this type audit.

For more complex installations in-house technical staff can be
trained by auditors from accounting firm Deloitte & Touche,
conducting their own audit after completion of the training. The
third SAM option is for a specially trained Deloitte & Touche audit
team to conduct the audit. Audit findings are presented to customers
in a "Software Audit Summary Report, which also includes
recommendations for managing software on an ongoing basis.

Egghead's technical team has access to SmartLicense, a database
developed in-house to track information about licensing options for
the top 100 software products. "McKenzie told Newsbytes SmartLicense
is installed at all of its field offices, and can be brought to the
customer's site on the Egghead field rep's laptop computer.

Proper licensing is an issue about which every user needs to be aware.
Congress recently passed the Software Copyright Bill which makes
commercial software piracy a felony, punishable by fines of up to
$250,000 and up to five years in jail.

(Jim Mallory/19921207/Press contact: Megan McKenzie, Egghead
Software, 206-391-6266)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00019)

Compaq Sponsors Tennis Tournament 12/07/92
HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1992 DEC 7 (NB) -- Computer companies
aren't just interested in spreadsheets and word processing. They
involve themselves in other activities, as demonstrated by the
sponsorship of a major tennis tournament by Compaq Computer
Corporation.

The Compaq Grand Slam, which opens in Munich, Germany December 8th,
will feature such tennis luminaries as Stefan Edberg, Andre Agassi,
Pete Sampras, John McEnroe, Michael Chang and Michael Stich. Ivan
Lendl was originally scheduled to play, but had to withdraw due to
injury.

The term Grand Slam was coined by an American journalist in 1938 to
pay tribute to tennis great Don Budge who became the first tennis
player to win the singles title at all four major tournaments (the
Australian Open, French Open, US Open, and Wimbleton) the same year.

In addition to Budge, one other man, Rod Laver won the Grand Slam,
once as an amateur in 1952 and again as a pro in 1969. Three women
have joined the exclusive club. Maureen Connolly made it in 1953,
Margaret Court in 1970, and Stefi Graf in 1988.

Winning the Compaq Grand Slam is a rewarding victory, with a $6
million purse at stake. But players aren't the only winners. In 1985
the Grand Slam Development Fund was established, with the money
used for instruction, equipment, entry level tournaments,
junior circuits and teams, and travel grants. And thanks in part to
support from the fund, wheelchair tennis has spread to over 50
countries with more than 200 tournaments taking place worldwide.

Compaq is now in its third year of Grand Slam sponsorship.

(Jim Mallory/19921207/Press contact: Yvonne Donaldson, Compaq
Computer, 713-374-0484)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00020)

Intelligent Electronics Sells Bizmart Chain 12/07/92
CLEVELAND, OHIO, U.S.A., 1992 DEC 7 (NB) -- Officemax Inc., a
Cleveland-based office products superstore chain, has announced that
it is has signed an agreement to purchase the 104-store Bizmart
chain.

The purchase price, which will be primarily cash, will be based on
the audited book value of Bizmart as of November 28, 1992, and is
estimated at about $270 million. Bizmart's parent company,
Intelligent Electronics, will retain some inventory items.

After the deal is complete, Intelligent Electronics will continue to
provide some logistics services to Bizmart on a cost plus basis, and
will also retain responsibility for the remaining seven franchised
computer departments located in Bizmart outlets. The deal is expected
to close by early February 1993, and is subject to governmental
approvals and an OK by IE's shareholders.

IE acquired Bizmart in June of 1991 for $196 million when it had 57
outlets. Officemax was founded in 1988. It acquired OW Office
Warehouse of Virginia Beach, VA in June of this year. The company
says it plans to open an additional 20 stores before the end of the
year. Officemax is 92 percent owned by Kmart Corporation. The
remaining eight percent is held by the company's co-founders.

(Jim Mallory/19921207/Press contact: Patrice Johnson, Intelligent
Electronics, 215-458-6706)


(NEWS)(APPLE)(TOR)(00021)

New For Macintosh: KnowledgeBuilder Writing Tool 12/07/92
WINNIPEG, MANITOBA, CANADA, 1992 DEC 7 (NB) -- Tronica
International Inc., is shortly to release KnowledgeBuilder, an
educational software package for networked Apple Macintosh
computers aimed at building research and writing skills.

The software has been tested in Winnipeg-area schools among
students in grades 4 through 9, said Patrick Miner,
vice-president of Tronica. It is meant to develop writing skills
by helping students work through the various stages involved in
writing, from research to publication.

Students start by doing research using the software's built-in
knowledge base, Miner said. This knowledge base can be built up
by teachers and then added to during the academic year as
students contribute their work. The software allows text and
graphics in common file formats to be imported into the knowledge
base.

Organization tools allow "concept mapping" by "representing
concepts as shapes," Miner said, as well as the construction of
outlines.

Then there is a word processing function for writing drafts.
Publishing capabilities let students do the final formatting and
add graphics and animation to their documents, Miner added.

The software is meant to operate on a network of Macintoshes. It
requires a minimum of a Macintosh Plus with System 6.05 or later
and two megabytes of memory as a desktop client, while the server
must be at least a Macintosh SE with System 6.05 or later, eight
megabytes of memory, and an 80 megabyte hard disk. AppleShare
and Waterloo MacJanet networks are supported, the vendor said.

Due to be available in January, KnowledgeBuilder 1.0 will have a
suggested retail price of US$395, which will cover a limited
license for as many as eight workstations. Tronica plans to sell
the software initially in North America and English-speaking
Europe, with Spanish and French versions a possibility in the
future, Miner said.

(Grant Buckler/19921207/Press Contact: Patrick Miner, Tronica
International, 204-783-8566)


(NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00022)

Radius Year-End Promo; Intros SCSI Board 12/07/92
SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1992 DEC 7 (NB) -- Just a few
days after introducing the PrecisionColor Pivot display for both
the PC and Macintosh platforms, Radius has announced a year-end
promotional program which includes special incentives for
resellers as well as special offers for buyers. The company has
also introduced a small computer systems interface (SCSI)
daughtercard for its Radius Rocket Macintosh accelerators,
called the SCSI-2 Booster.

The company says that just about all of Radius' products will
be included under the program, which will begin in early December
with new advertising and direct mail campaigns. The campaign
includes the giving out of rebate coupons to over 200,000
targeted buyers.

The company says that over 50,000 color publishers will receive
$250 rebate coupons for Radius color publishing system products.
A special offer to SuperMac VideoSpigot users will provide a
$200 trade-in toward the purchase of a VideoVision video
publishing system.

Mary Coleman, Radius vice president of marketing, said: "We
were especially encouraged by the success of our recent
Pivot/LE promotion which sold out our entire inventory of
products two months sooner than we had planned."

Radius says that its authorized resellers have already received
full details of the promotion which also provides special
incentives for their participation in the program.

Radius also says it has began shipments of the SCSI-2 Booster,
a daughtercard for the Radius Rocket family of Macintosh
system accelerators. According to the company, the board
"significantly" increases data throughput to "high-performance,
SCSI-based peripherals."

The Radius SCSI-2 Booster uses 40 megahertz (MHz) SCSI-2
controller chips to achieve sustained data transfer rates of up
to five megabytes per second, claims the company. The product
carries a list price of $229.

Radius claims that the SCSI-2 Booster eliminates the SCSI
interface bottleneck associated with Macintosh II computers
and speeds peripheral-intensive operations.

In other company news, Dawn Thompson has been appointed to the
position of vice president of Human Resources. Thompson, who is
a seven-year veteran of Tandem Computers of Cupertino,
California, will head Radius' recently formed human resources
business unit.

(Ian Stokell/19921204/Press Contact: James Strohecker,
408-954-6828, Radius Inc., or Robert Angus, 415-363-0982,
A & R Partners)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00023)

LSI Logic, Dolphin In CMOS Dev't Deal 12/07/92
MILPITAS, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1992 DEC 7 (NB) -- Barely a week
after the company cancelled its plans to shut down over the
Christmas holiday period, LSI Logic, a leading 32-bit RISC
(reduced instruction-set computer) microprocessor supplier,
and Dolphin SCI Technology AS of Oslo, Norway, have announced
a licensing and technology transfer agreement. Under the terms
of the deal, the two companies will jointly develop Dolphin's
implementation of the scalable coherent interface (SCI).

The agreement calls for LSI and Dolphin to jointly develop a
CMOS (complimentary metal oxide semiconductor) version of
Dolphin's SCI implementation which will then be manufactured
and marketed by LSI. According to the companies, SCI is an IEEE
standard interconnect designed to solve the cost and bandwidth
problems that current high speed buses cannot address.

According to the companies, SCI was initially designed for use
in high performance multiprocessors, and is targeted toward
distributed computing, computer peripherals and multiprocessor
interconnect applications which require higher bandwidth and
lower cost than typical high speed buses can provide.

The companies hope that a low-cost CMOS version of the Dolphin
SCI implementation will expand the SCI market into mainstream
system design. LSI Logic will sell Dolphin SCI's implementation
as an ASIC (application specific integrated circuit) core through
LSI Logic's CoreWare Division.

Mike Casey, marketing director of LSI Logic, Europe, said: "Dolphin
SCI is a perfect match for LSI Logic's ASIC technology for the high
performance electronic data processing marketplace. Dolphin SCI's
designs are well-suited as ASIC library elements for LSI's
CoreWare methodology which provides complex building blocks
that enable customers to build systems on a chip. By providing
versions of the Dolphin technology as cores, LSI Logic and Dolphin
will be able to target a broad range of price/performance points
and market requirements."

Concerning the cancelled plans for the corporate shutdown, the
company said that an "improved business environment," led to
the decision. The company had planned to shut its operations on
December 21, 22, and 23. LSI Logic had originally planned the
shutdown to lower operating expenses during "a typically slow
business period."

In October, Newsbytes reported that LSI Logic posted a third-
quarter loss of $111 million, after taking a restructuring
charge of $102 million. LSI revenues were $154 million, down
nearly 11 percent from revenues of $172 million in the like
period last year.

The restructuring charge was set to be used to cover the cost of
closing a production plant in Braunschweig, Germany, shifting
some production from Silicon Valley to the Far East, and
reducing the company's Headland Technology subsidiary in
Fremont to a division that will be run out of its headquarters.
The charge was also set to be used to dismiss 175 employees, or
four percent of its workforce.

At that time, the company said that additional ways to cut costs,
planned for the future, included accelerating the phase-out of
older process technologies, increasing the role of the Far East
for high-volume wafer manufacturing and assembly and test, and
relying upon subcontractors and other outside sources to satisfy
an increased portion of the company's requirements.

(Ian Stokell/19921207/Press Contact: Carey Mitchell,
408-433-7175, LSI Logic)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00024)

Beijing May Lower Computer Software Tariffs 12/07/92
BEIJING, CHINA, U.S.A., 1992 DEC 7 (NB) -- Friday's report by
Reuters that China has decided to lower tariffs on 3,371 imported
products ranging from crude oil to computer software is being
greeted by Washington insiders with a mixture of cautious
optimism and cynicism.

The cynics point out that China has not said how much it will
reduce tariffs, only that it will announce reductions at the
end of December. They also suggest that in the light of China's
anger over recent US decisions to sell weapons to Taiwan,
coupled with recent reports that China has openly sold offensive
weapons to Pakistan in the form of missiles capable of delivering
nuclear weapons into the interior of India, and the change of
US administrations, the announced lowering of tariffs is as
much a smoke screen as anything.

The Office of the US Trade Ambassador told Newsbytes today that
officials had no comment as yet on the reports of a lowering of trade
barriers.

The US has been trying for years to gain access to China's vast
market partially because that country's high tariffs on many
imported goods have led to China posting a large and continuing
trade surplus in relation to the US.

China has stated that it is making the move to lower tariffs in
an attempt to win re-entry into the world trading agreement which
now looks as though it may finally be signed.

The current Uruguay Round General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
(GATT) has been held up for years by questions of farm subsidies
that were recently cleared up in direct US-French negotiations.

One observer pointed out that since China has an incredible
number of complex import regulations which pose as large or
larger a barrier to two-way trade as do the actual tariffs, even
a complete removal of all tariffs might not result in any actual
increase in trade.

(John McCormick/19921207/)


(NEWS)(IBM)(LAX)(00025)

Intel Offers New Disk Controller For Notebooks 12/07/92
FOLSOM, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1992 DEC 7 (NB) -- Intel has
introduced a new floppy disk controller geared toward mobile
and small form factor personal computers. The company says the
new 82078 chip is one third the size of a 68-lead PLCC package
for smaller board design and models are available for low power
consumption, tape drives, and 4 megabyte (MB) floppy drive
support.

Intel says the 82078 offers faster data movement with a 16-byte
first in, first out (FIFO) memory and high speed host
interface. Intel says the FIFO "bursts" data across the bus
requiring less handshaking and the high speed interface means
data transfers won't slow down the bus. The FIFO architecture
is designed for extended industry standard architecture (EISA),
Micro Channel, peripheral component interconnect (PCI), and
other multi-master environments.

A media ID pin on the new chip offers the ability to identify
the format and density of a diskette inserted in a supported
floppy drive, Intel added. The chip was also designed to handle
the "disk jitters" by incorporating a new Phase Locked Loop
(PLL) design.

A low power version, the 82078SL, uses only 3.3 volts, has 64-
leads, and is geared toward the power-sensitive notebook
market. Two 44-lead chips, one with 4 MB support and one
without, are geared toward inclusion on desktop systems.

The 82078-1 is designed for tape drives with support for a 2
megabyte-per-second data transfer rate, Intel said.

The new chips are 100 percent compatible with the previous
82077SL chip. Major basic input/output system (BIOS) vendors,
such as AMI, Phoenix, and Systemsoft are supporting the new
82078, according to Intel. The company also added Microsoft is
supporting 4 MB diskettes in DOS 5.0, also known as 2.77 MB
diskettes (after formatting).

Samples are available now and the company says full production
will begin in February of 1993. The chips cost $4 to $6 each,
depending on the version, in quantities of 1,000 units.

(Linda Rohrbough/19921207/Press Contact: Kathleen O'Donnell,
Intel, tel [phone], fax [phone]; Public Contact, 800-
548-4725)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00026)

 ****New ATM Can "Read" Deposited Check 12/07/92
SAN ANTONIO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1992 DEC 7 (NB) -- In order
to help the banking industry cut costs with automation, NCR
has developed automated teller machines (ATMs) that "read"
and endorse a deposited check or cash.

The new deposit-processing ATM can scan the deposit, determine
if it's a check or cash, read the dollar amount and MICR line of
the check, then encode and endorse the document, something
previously done by workers in a bank's back office. The ATM
captures an electronic image of both the front and back of a
check or bill, and then displays the deposited item to the ATM
user so the user knows the ATM has accepted the transaction.

Error checking is built into the new ATM, so for example, if an
ATM user hasn't endorsed the check, it will be returned so the
user can do so, NCR added. Any discrepancy between the amount
shown on the check and the amount scanned is also shown the
user and the amount area of the check is enlarged so the user
can read and re-enter the amount.

The NCR ATM system prints a detailed receipt for the customer,
archives the captured image, and transfers the check to the
appropriate storage area, a series of electronic activities
similar to back office proof and encoding operations. No more
filling out deposit envelopes, NCR said, and customers can cash
checks to the penny, deposit checks, and receive cash back on
deposits, all without human intervention.

Bill paying can also be accomplished using similar procedures,
NCR said. Predefined fields on the payment slip, such as the
minimum payment, can be "read" and electronically processed as
well.

Chemical Bank has been testing the automated deposit ATM with
customers and says it will be an early adopter of the
technology. Also, the Barnett Bank, the largest in Florida with
$33 billion in assets, will be one of the first banks to offer
the intelligent deposit ATM for check processing at one of its
Jacksonville branches, NCR said.

NCR has also introduced an ATM machine designed for use as a
drive-in teller from an automobile, rather than just a standard
walk-up ATM machine placed at a lower height. NCR said the ATM
offers other improved functions as well, such as the ability to
replenish supplies to the machine while it is running, a
self-diagnostic system that the firm calls "state of health
reporting," a cash dispenser with 1,2,3, or 4 denominations,
self-service printing, automatic envelope dispensing, envelope
depositing, journal receipt printing, full-statement printing
capabilities, and interactive menus.

Sixty-five percent of a bank's overhead is in its interface to
the customer, according to William Randle, senior vice
president and corporate marketing manager for Huntington Bank.
If banks can cut the cost of the customer interface, they can
increase profits.

Recently introduced attempts at that goal include computerized
"smart" phones with liquid crystal displays offered to
consumers at additional cost to help them automate banking,
bill paying, and most banking functions except deposits and
withdrawals. Live video ATM machines are also being planned,
Randle said.

(Linda Rohrbough/19921207/Press Contact: Lisa Hendrickson,
Manning Salvege & Lee Public Relations, tel [phone], fax
212-213-7199)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00027)

German Telekom Said To Be Readying Price Cuts 12/07/92
BONN, GERMANY, 1992 DEC 7 (NB) -- Deutsche Bundespost Telekom (DBT) is
said to be readying a parcel of price cuts on its long distance and
international calls, according to a feature in Bild Zeitung, the
Hamburg-based daily newspaper.

Quoting senior officials with the state telecom company, the paper
says that the cuts are aimed at preventing any third-party companies
from entering the newly privatized German telecom market-place and
undercutting DBT.

DBT's long distance tariffs have long been criticized as being
excessive. International calls from Germany are so high that, at peak
times, it can actually work out cheaper to call the US using an AT&T
card and use the AT&T World Connect service back to another European
country.

Publicly, DBT has not commented on the newspaper report but, then
again, the state telecom company has not denied the report. Sources
close to the company are quoted as saying that the company plans to
progressively reduce its long distance and international phone charges
over the next few years, so as to pre-empt any competition.

While this is good news for business users of Germany's phone
networks, it probably means the end of low cost local calls.

(Steve Gold/19921207)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(LON)(00028)

5 East European Countries Join Satellite Consortium 12/07/92
PARIS, FRANCE, 1992 DEC 7 (NB) -- Five countries from the former
Eastern Bloc have joined Eutelsat, the European consortium of
satellite operators.

The addition of the countries -- Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia,
Georgia and Ukraine -- means that Eutelsat now has 38 member states
and/or countries in its domain. Eutelsat currently has eight satellites
operational, with several more planned.

In keeping with Eutelsat's conditions, each of the new members has
invested around UKP 40,000 into the consortium. This gives them pay-
as-you-go access to the Eutelsat network of satellites and, perhaps
more importantly, membership for the state telecom operations in their
respective areas.

Interestingly, Russia is one of the last former Eastern Bloc
countries to be a member of Eutelsat. Telecom industry
sources suggest that Russia will shortly join the consortium.

Membership of Eutelsat is getting to be quite important
because technology is advancing very quickly and has allowed the
use of relatively small mobile satellite systems, with
dishes just a few feet across, to link to satellites. This means that
satellite phone "hops" can be up and running very quickly, under
relatively hostile conditions.

(Steve Gold/19921207)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00029)

 ****Timbuktu Lets Windows, Macs, Talk Remotely 12/07/92
EMERYVILLE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1992 DEC 7 (NB) -- Farallon
Computing has introduced Timbuktu for Windows and a new release
of Timbuktu for Macintosh. The new products are designed to allow
users of both Macintosh and Windows computers to share printers,
exchange electronic files, and remotely access and control
Macintosh or Windows computers across a network.

Stacy Pena, spokesperson for Farallon, told Newsbytes that,
"As long as you are on a network, and that can be a LocalTalk, or
Ethernet, or Token-Ring network, you can exchange files without
any additional hardware, because the software provides that
capability through the network. It is really as simple as 'dragging'
the file from one place to another. It's a very simple operation."

In response to a question from Newsbytes, she confirmed that
the users, "have to be on the same network."

According to the company, using Timbuktu, Macintosh and Windows
users can share network resources such as laser printers and
servers. The company says that cross-platform Timbuktu file
transfer features allow users of both platforms to exchange files
without need of a file server.

Said Pena to Newsbytes, "What Farallon has found is that there is
a great deal of demand for a way to communicate between the Mac
and the Windows platforms. And there is currently not a way to do
that peer-to-peer. Any other 'solutions' out on the market require
going through the server. Timbuktu is the only product that
provides those capabilities."

The company says that the software's screen-sharing features let
users work together in real time to collaborate across the
network. In addition, the cross-platform Timbuktu products enable
network managers of mixed workgroups to remotely control either
Macintosh or Windows computers to offer real-time support and
training across the network and to remotely administer servers.

Steve Holtzman, vice president of marketing for Farallon, said:
The number of Macintosh computers in business and education is
growing and mixed-platform networks are becoming the norm.
Macintosh and PC users need to work together without having to
worry about whether their computers will 'talk' to each other.
Timbuktu is the first network application to provide intuitive,
real-time cross-platform communication without the need for a
server, offering substantial productivity and ease of
administration benefits in mixed-platform environments."

The company claims that, by simply extending the Mac's built-in
networking capabilities (AppleTalk) to PCs, Timbuktu for Windows
lets users quickly and easily set up a reliable peer-to-peer, mixed-
platform network requiring little on-going maintenance.

Concluded Pena: "Timbuktu for the Mac has been on the market for
a few years. With the introduction of the Windows version and
the Macintosh version, they are really repositioning the products.
Because Timbuktu for Mac has been primarily used by network
managers for administration of the network and for user support.

"What this will do is reposition it beyond that - it will still
provide those capabilities but be more of an end-user tool for
people who are in small workgroups who just need to communicate and
want to do simple things like exchange files, or access printers,
and collaborate on what they are working on."

(Ian Stokell/19921207/Press Contact: Trudy Edelson,
510-596-9314, Farallon Computing Inc., Stacy Pena,
415-325-6236, Thomas Associates Inc.)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00030)

Software Converts Legacy To Other Formats 12/07/92
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1992 DEC 7 (NB) -- Evolutionary
Technologies Incorporated is offering software designed to solve the
problem of what to do with old Legacy data when moving to new
database management systems such as Oracle, IDMS or Informix.

In a visit with Newsbytes on a recent trip to Boston, Dr. Katherine
Hammer, president and CEO of the new Austin, TX-based company, and
Robin Curle, executive vice president, explained that ETI's new
Extract Tool Suite can cut the time and money spent on data
conversion up to 95% by automating the process.

"Some corporations have 30 years or more of data that needs to be
converted, often from a variety of proprietary and non-proprietary
formats. Even if a corporation started out with a homogenous
database, other companies acquired along the way may have
contributed their own database formats," Hammer commented.

Up to now, organizations have dealt with this dilemma by writing
custom programs designed to convert one type of data to another,
stated Curle. "But this approach to data conversion is tedious,
error prone, and costly. Further, the code is not reusable," she
noted.

Extract's alternative approach was originally developed at the
Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC) research
consortium, Hammer told Newsbytes. In 1988, while working in the
VLSI CAD Program at MCC, Hammer obtained nine months of exploratory
funding from MCC's Advanced Computing Technology Program to create
an early prototype for Extract, obtain research sponsors for the
project, and carry out marketing.

In 1990, assisted by Curle, who was also an MCC staffer at the
time, Hammer launched the 12-month process of obtaining agreements
that would allow Extract to become ETI's first commercial spin-out.

ETI was formed in January, 1991, with funding from MCC and venture
capitalists Menlo Ventures and Major Bobby Inman as well as from
the ETI principals. NCR, Bellcore, Motorola, Honeywell, Texas
Instruments, CDC, and the US Navy have since contributed some
$1.5 million in test platforms and "person power."

The Extract Tool Suite now consists of three products, according to
Curle. The Master Set is a suite of four interactive tools used to
tell Extract about the organization's hardware and software.
Through a series of graphical menus, the user describes such items
as file structures, optimal access methods, and programming
languages. From this information, another Extract product, the
Data Conversion Tool, can generate programs capable of accessing
any database stored in that environment.

The Data Conversion Tool lets the user initiate a conversion and
generate the needed programs within minutes, the executive VP said.
Without performing any programming, the user can specify
conditional queries, merge data from multiple sources, and check
data integrity, operations previously possible only through
handwritten programs. The Data Conversion Tool also produces
detailed documentation of the conversion and the inter-database
relationships.

The Extract Libraries, a product still in the pilot phase, consists
of packaged definitions of commercial file and database
management systems for use in the data conversion process. ETI is
now testing libraries for IDMS, DB2, Cobol flat files, VSAM, and
DMS2, Curle reported. "Then we'll do all the relational systems --
including Oracle, Ingres, Sybase and Informix -- and ultimately,
every commonly accepted database management system," she disclosed.

Through a recently announced agreement, customers of Pyramid
Technology Corp. will be using Extract tools to migrate legacy data
from mainframes to Pyramid's Unix-based systems, the ETI principals
told Newsbytes. Users will be able to move the legacy data to any
of several databases being offered on the Pyramid platform.

Another new agreement calls for Bachman to resell Extract, and for
Bachman and ETI to jointly develop a link between Bachman's
database design products and Extract. Bachman plans to release the
link during the first quarter of next year. "With the Bachman
tools doing the database modeling and analysis, and our tools
moving the data, a total CASE solution will be provided," predicted
Curle.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19921207: Press contact: Marianne N. Radwan,
Capital Relations Inc. for ETI, 214-907-9500)