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/1993/NB111093

Text File | 1993-11-10 | 71KB | 1,581 lines

(NEWS)(IBM)(SFO)(00001)

Epson Intros ActionNote Notebooks 11/10/93
TORRANCE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 NOV 10 (NB) -- Just a few
months after announcing the first of the product line, Epson has
now introduced the ActionNote 500C and 700 series of portable
computers.

Epson's new ActionNote 700 series features 486DX/33 processors
running at 33 megahertz (MHz), and includes monochrome, dual-scan
passive matrix color or TFT (thin film transistor) active matrix
color versions. The 9.5-inch monochrome sidelit LCD (liquid crystal
display) screen version offers 64 shades of grey, while the 9.5-inch
passive  matrix and 8.5-inch TFT active color screens feature 256
simultaneous colors. All versions support simultaneous display on
LCD panel and external monitor, and offer built-in local bus video
capabilities for faster video and graphics processing.

In announcing the new products, Sanford Weisman, product marketing
manager, portable computing, Epson, said: "In a nutshell, the new 700
series delivers high performance features in the smallest and
lightest package available, while the ActionNote 500C breaks new
ground offering a quality color product for under $2,000."

The monochrome versions of the ActionNote 700 series weighs 4.4
pounds, while the passive matrix color weighs 4.9 pounds and the
TFT color matrix weighs 4.9 pounds. The systems measure 8.6- by
11- by 1.4-inches for the monochrome version and just 1.6-inches
for the color models. A wall socket AC adaptor pushes the color
ActionNote models up to just under 5.5 pounds.

The models feature a NiMH battery and power management features
including 3.3 volt technology, and a battery gauge to give users
extended battery life. The monochrome version offers four to six
hours of battery life, while the color versions give three and a half
to five hours of extended battery life.

The ActionNote 700 includes an integrated, front and center
trackball, PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card Industry
Association) Type II slot, 3.5-inch 1.44 megabyte (MB)
diskette drive and a built-in 9600/2400 baud send/receive
fax/modem on the motherboard.

All three models include a removable hard disk drive in a variety of
versions, from 80MB to 213MB. They also include 4MB of on-board
RAM expandable to 20MB.

MS-DOS 6.2, Microsoft Windows 3.11, Delrina WinFax Lite 3.0,
PCMCIA services and utilities, a mouse cursor and screen enhancer,
and on-line documentation software are preloaded.

Epson will also add the ActionNote 500C, an enhanced passive
matrix color notebook with a 486SLC/2-50 clock-doubled processor
and local bus video. Estimated street price for the 500C is expected
to be under $2,000, according to the company.

The ActionNote 500C portable computer features a fixed hard disk
drive and is covered by Epson's On-Site Warranty Service. The
ActionNote 700's removable hard disk drives are covered by Epson
Extra Care Road Service. Warranties for all ActionNotes are offered
free to purchasers as part of Epson's limited one year warranty.
Extended warranties are also available.

In August Newsbytes reported that Epson had announced shipment
of its ActionNote 4SLC/33 notebook computer. At the time, the
company said that the new notebook offered 30 percent faster
processing, improved power management and a brighter LCD
screen than its predecessor, the ActionNote 4SLC/25, which
was released in April.

In June, Newsbytes reported that Epson was introducing the
ActionNote series to complement its existing NB Series, and
not as a replacement.

(Ian Stokell/19931109/Press Contact: Jan Marciano,
310-782-5161, Epson America Inc.)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00002)

Australia To Participate In Germany's 1994 Cebit 11/10/93
HANOVER, GERMANY, 1993 NOV 10 (NB) -- Deutsche Messe AG, the
company that organizes the annual Cebit computer fair, which
takes place every March in Germany, has announced a special
agreement with the Australian Trade Commission.

Starting with next year's show (1994), the Australian Trade
Commission (Austrade) will coordinate Australian companies
attending the event. For the March 1995 show, Austrade will invest
AUS$2 million in the show, in return for which Deutsche Messe will
allow Austrade to control what looks like becoming an Australian
pavilion at the event.

According to Deutsche Messe, around 75 companies are expected to
attend the 1994 show. Officials with Austrade, meanwhile, are
enthusiastic about the possible of setting up a mini-Australian
computer show at Cebit '95, as they claim that there are more than
300 computer and telecommunications companies in Australia,
all of whom export more than AUS$1,600 million worth of goods
and services every year.

Newsbytes notes, however, that the bulk of the export activities
of the high-tech Australian companies tend to be in the Asian
marketplace. It is this trend that Austrade wants to divert into
Europe, which it sees as a market ripe for development.

(Sylvia Dennis/19931109/Press & Public Contact: Deutsche
Messe, tel [phone], fax [phone])


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00003)

Modem Price War In UK 11/10/93
BRADFORD, ENGLAND, 1993 NOV 10 (NB) -- A war of attrition has
broken out in the UK modem industry, with two major players
apparently seeing how far they can push each other in terms of
retail and dealer pricing.

Pace Micro Technology (PMT) kicked off the battle in October
with a price cut on its PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card
Industry Association) modems. This was met, as reported by
Newsbytes recently, with a swift round of price cuts on US
Robotics Sportster modems from UKP399 to UKP299.

Now Pace has responded by shaving UKP100 off the price of its
Microlin FX V.32Bis fax/modem, taking the retail price down to
UKP299. As this issue of Newsbytes goes to press, US Robotics has
announced it is giving its resellers room to beat the Pace price by
reducing its dealer pricing to 1UKP less than Pace's dealer
price.

Dave Downey, Pace's sales and marketing director, upon hearing
about US Robotics latest pricing strategy, said that he was not
in favor of reducing pricing on his company's products still
further, on the grounds that a price war would not do either
Pace or US Robotics any favors.

"It sounds like a two horse race, but it's a lot more than that.
What we're all battling for isn't a bulk share of today's market,
but a slice of what will almost certainly be a major market in
the future for fax modems. This is why the price war is so
intense," he told Newsbytes.

In response, US Robotics' Hudson told Newsbytes that his
company has a lot more room for manoeuvre on pricing. "I can go
a lot lower," he said. "Our pricing is based on the fact that our US
parent has covered the bulk of research and development costs
for the Sportster in the US market."

Dave Kurl, marketing manager with Pace, was as skeptical as
Downey about US Robotics' claim on R&D costs. "Many features of
UK-specific modems take a lot of designing in. Whether US
Robotics admits it or not, there is a definite cost in producing a
modem specifically for the UK market, which the Sportster has
been modified for," he said.

(Steve Gold/19931109/Press & Public Contact: Pace,
49-274-532000; US Robotics, 49-753-811180)


(NEWS)(IBM)(LAX)(00004)

Syquest's Matchbox-Sized Removable PCMCIA Hard Drive 11/10/93
FREMONT, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 NOV 10 (NB) -- Syquest,
maker of removable Winchester hard disk drives, says it has
introduced the SQ1080 microstorage system, a removable hard
disk drive for laptop, palmtop, and notebook computers that
uses a Personal Computer Memory Card Industry Association
(PCMCIA) slot.

The actual hard disk drives for the unit come in either 60 or
80 megabyte (MB) capacities and are the size of a matchbox,
Syquest added.

The company claims that the biggest advantage to the removable
PCMCIA hard disk drives is a fraction of the cost per MB than
other PCMCIA hard disk or flash storage when more than one
storage cartridge is used. Original equipment manufacturer (OEM)
prices for the drives are below $300 and additional cartridges
start at $40 each.

The drives require a PCMCIA Type III slot, which can also be
simulated by stacking two PCMCIA Type II slots, Syquest said.
The drives can take 2,000Gs of force when dropped, which the
company says is 10 times greater than conventional PCMCIA
drives. They also have a 32 kilobyte (KB) buffer size, and an
average access time of 16 milliseconds (msec).

The drives offer a mean-time-between-failure (MTBF) reliability
rating of 150,000 hours, Syquest claims. The 80MB drive has a
sustained data transfer rate of 1.6 MB/second while the 60MB
cartridge can transfer data at 1.3 MB/second.

Syquest says camera companies are strongly interested in the
possibility of including the SQ1080 in digital photography
applications.

Joel Levine told Newsbytes: "Since up to 50 digital photos can be
stored on one 80MB cartridge, this drive is being considered as
the ideal storage solution for digital cameras. Also, because it
is rugged, tiny, portable, high-capacity, and cost-effective, it
could also be used with many hand-held mobile instruments for
medical, scientific, and field data capturing applications."

The company also points out that while damaged notebook and
palmtop computers can also be a graveyard for the data stored
on them, the SQ1080 drive can simply be removed from a damaged
computer and used in another unit. Users can easily exchange
information via the removable hard disks as well.

Users will not be able to buy the drives directly from Syquest
until June of 1994, Syquest officials told Newsbytes, but OEMs
are buying them now. The Newton Messagepad and Zoomer personal
digital assistants (PDAs) do not currently have PCMCIA Type III
slots, but several portable computers do have them, Syquest
officials said.

The SQ3270, a 3.5-inch, 270MB removable Winchester cartridge
disk drive for desktop, laptop and notebook computers, has also
been introduced by Syquest. Aimed at the laptop and notebook
computer market, the drive will also read 105MB cartridges
from Syquest's previous 3.5-inch removable drive product and
has an average seek time of less than 13.5 milliseconds.

The new 3.5-inch drive averages less than four watts of power,
requires only a single five-volt power source, has an
AT/Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) interface, in addition to
a 100,000 hour MTBF rating. OEM prices are $465 each, which
includes one cartridge. The company has not said when the drive
will be available to end users.

Currently involved in legal battles with a French maker of
compatible cartridges for its 5.25-inch drives -- Noami -- Syquest
claims no company has the right to make cartridges compatible
with its drives. The company maintains that its technology is
proprietary and has gone as far as to say that users who are found
to be using cartridges other than its own, can consider their
warranties invalid.

(Linda Rohrbough/19931109/Press Contact: Joel Levine, Syquest
Technology, 510-226-4000; Michelle Mihalick, Neale-May &
Partners for Syquest, tel [phone], fax [phone])


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00005)

Geoworks Intros Geoworks Publisher For Developers 11/10/93
BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 NOV 10 (NB) -- Geoworks, the
company that developed the Geoworks integrated software suite and
the operating system used in several personal digital assistants,
has introduced Geoworks Publishing.

GP is a tool for software developers working in the GEOS operating
system that the company says will aid third-party developers in
achieving maximum product and market potential.

Geoworks Chairman and CEO Brian Dougherty says support in the
areas of product design, targeted distribution support, cost-
effective manufacturing, and innovative marketing is critical to
the small software companies trying to become successful in
the emerging consumer computing device (CCD) market.

One of the specific ways Geoworks can aid developers is through
its electronic distribution system, a cost effective way to bring
software to market that is gaining in popularity, claims the
company. Geoworks Publishing is scheduled to offer electronic
distribution in the first quarter of 1994. The system will allow
software buyers to browse through an on-line software catalog,
make their application buying decisions, and download the
program either to a GEOS-based device or to a desktop via modem.

GP says it also offers developers access to standardized packing
to ensure merchandising opportunities, volume discounts on
components, competitive pricing, and timely shipment on PCMCIA
(Personal Computer Memory Card Industry Association) cards.
Geoworks says the marketing component will provide widespread
exposure for software partners through trade show participation,
public relations support, and innovative marketing programs.

Developers interested in exploring the possibilities and advantages
of GP can approach Geoworks with the product concept, then work
one-on-one with the company to determine product commercial
viability.

(Jim Mallory/19931110/Press contact: Deborah Dawson,
Geoworks, 510-204-8550)


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

Microsoft Demos OpenGL 3-D Graphics Technology 11/10/93
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1993 NOV 10 (NB) -- Showgoers at the
AutoFact trade show being held in Chicago this week got to see
Microsoft Corp., demonstrate the integration of OpenGL 3-D
graphics technology and Microsoft's Windows NT operating system.

OpenGL is an interface for three-dimensional (3-D) color graphics
programming frequently used for engineering, visualization,
simulation and other graphics-intensive applications running on
high-end technical workstations. The technology is licensed from
Silicon Graphics.

Microsoft says it has worked with Silicon Graphics since 1991 on the
development of OpenGL for Windows NT, with efforts focused on the
integration of the two software packages. Microsoft says it will
support the OpenGL application programming interface (API) as part
of the Win32 API for 3-D requirements.

Applications using the OpenGL technology include mechanical
computer-aided design (CAD), architectural, product design, color
publishing, medical imaging, computer animation, scientific
visualization, and clothing design. It was defined by an industry
consortium named the OpenGL Architecture Review board which
includes Microsoft, Digital Equipment Corp., IBM, Intel, and Silicon
Graphics.

(Jim Mallory/19931110/Press contact: Beverley Flower, Microsoft
Corp., 205-882-8080; Reader contact: Microsoft Corp., 800-426-
9400 or 206-882-8080)


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

Cirrus Logic Intros Enhanced PCMCIA Host Adapter 11/10/93
FREMONT, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 NOV 10 (NB) -- PCMCIA
(Personal Computer Memory Card Industry Association) boards
are becoming increasingly popular as a means of adding
additional features to portable computers. Now Cirrus Logic Inc.,
has announced the CL-PD6722 PCMCIA Host Adapter that the
company claims provides enhanced I/O (input/output) performance.

According to Cirrus, the new CL-PD6722 is essentially a dual-slot
host adapter with direct memory access (DMA) support for
peripherals on the ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) bus.

In announcing the new host adapter, Douglas J. Bartek, president of
Cirrus Logic's User Interface Products Co., said: "Personal computer
cards are the most efficient method for adding peripheral
functionality and memory to portable computers. With the advent
of the PCMCIA standard, demand has soared for a broad range of
peripherals."

The CL-PD6722 offers DMA support to provide enhanced I/O
capability, says the company. System performance can be
using DMA because it relieves CPU (central processing unit)
intervention when large data transfers are required from a
PCMCIA I/O card device. The company says that, because the
system DMA controller is specifically designed for moving data
from an I/O device to memory, it can complete this task faster,
using less bandwidth than the CPU would by doing the equivalent
I/O cycles to the card.

DMA-capable cards can be used for a variety of applications,
including PCMCIA-interfaced floppy disk drives, local area
network (LAN) cards, sound cards, and hard disks or CD-ROM
drives.

Cirrus says that universal card support is provided by offering full
PCMCIA compatibility and BIOS (basic input/output)-level software
that interfaces the host adapter hardware to the host operating
system. The PCMCIA interfaces reportedly comply with the Intel
Exchangeable Card Architecture (ExCA) Specification release 1.5,
which accommodates different card  architectures, and Socket
Services 2.1, which permits a variety of applications to be run.
The CL-PD6722 is backwards-compatible with the CL-PD6720.

The CL-PD6722 dual-slot PCMCIA host adapter is packaged in a
208-pin quad flat pack (QFP). The company says that samples will
be available, and production will begin, in the first quarter of
1994. The CL-PD6722 is priced at $20 each in quantities of 1,000.

At the beginning of October, Newsbytes reported that Crystal
Semiconductor, a division of Cirrus Logic, had introduced the
CS4920, claimed to be the first semiconductor to include all
audio decompression and digital-to-audio conversion operations
on a single chip.

In September, Cirrus Logic's Pacific Communication Sciences
division announced that it would supply the modules used in IBM
ThinkPad 750 portable computers which will access cellular
packet networks under the Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD)
protocol.

(Ian Stokell/19931109/Press Contact: Donna Buckmaster,
510-226-2014, Cirrus Logic Inc; Reader Contact: Kasturi
Gopalaswamy, 510-226-2261)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEL)(00008)

India - Private Sector Telecom Project Planned 11/10/93
NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1993 NOV 10 (NB) -- Following the decision of
the Telecom Commission on October 28, 1992, to allow private
parties to provide telecommunications services in the new
industrial townships and rural areas, the Foreign Investment
Promotion Board (FIPB) has cleared the first such project.

A $100 million proposal by a combine of the US West and
Electronics Corp. of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT), and the Tamil Nadu
Industrial Development Corp. (TIDCO) has been given the go-ahead
for setting up a telecommunication network using fixed wireless
lines at the hosiery export center of Tirupur.

The US company will provide $50 million with the remaining to be
contributed by the Indian partners. The move ends the Department
of Telecommunications' (DOT) monopoly in providing basic telephone
service. The exchange is expected to become operational in
October, 1994, and will charge DOT rates. Transition to a fiber
optic network will follow.

The US West-led proposal, however, is not the only one for Tirupur
that the government is considering. Indian Telephone Industries has
proposed the establishment of a 2000-line exchange for the Tirupur
Exporters Association. The DOT has also received proposals from
44 private parties for setting up a network for the Greater Noida
Industrial Development Area (GNIDA), in the outskirts of Delhi. The
bidders include Fujitsu, Siemens, France Telecom, AT&T and US
Telecom International.

AT&T, Seimens and Singapore Telecom are exploring the idea of other
projects, also in association with state governments, which is a
precondition laid down by DOT in awarding licenses for operating
private sector telecom networks.

The Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) has
permitted RPG Telecom Ltd., to set up a network connecting 22
industrial estates in Maharashtra in association with the US-
based company, Qualcomm.

In the first phase of implementation, 16 areas will be covered,
followed by the remaining six in a second stage. The locations for
the proposed network include Satpur, Ambad, Sinnar in Nashik
district, Butibori, Mauda, Akola, Chandrapur, Waluj, Baramati,
Kukum, Chikalthana, Ratnagiri, Dhule, and Nanded.

The DOT may not give clearance for the 22 locations being planned,
but that stage will come after the feasibility study is complete,
which is currently being conducted by MIDC and RPG. The percentage
of equity in the joint venture company (JVC) to be held by the MIDC
and its nominees will not be less than 11 percent of the total
initial equity capital of the JVC. The equity held by MIDC and its
nominees will be purchased by RPG Telecom and/or its nominees.

Other foreign companies  -- including AT&T, Singapore Telecom,
and Seimens -- have also approached the MIDC and have been asked
to submit concrete proposals. A JVC will be set up in the assisted
sector with one or more Indian companies and one or more foreign
companies as its partners. MIDC is planning to approach financial
institutions for term loans for the proposed JVCs.

(C.T. Mahabharat/19931110)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00009)

Develcon Back In The Black 11/10/93
SASKATOON, SASKATCHEWAN, CANADA, 1993 NOV 10 (NB) -- After
several rough years, Develcon Electronics Ltd., has at last reported
an annual profit. The company, which makes networking hardware,
reported net income of C$166,000 on revenues of C$10.89 million
for the year ended August 31.

These results compare with a loss of C$1.34 million on revenues
of C$8.64 million last year. Net income per share in fiscal 1993
was one cent, compared with a 17 cent-a-share loss in fiscal
1992.

Audrey Schneider, corporate secretary at Develcon, said the
company has continued to be profitable in the last two months
and expects to report a profit in fiscal 1994. "Everything seems
to be going as projected."

New internetworking product lines are accounting for about half
the company's sales today and their contribution to revenue is
growing, she said.

In the fourth quarter of fiscal 1993, the company recorded net
income of C$106,000, or half a cent per share, compared with a
net loss of C$175,000, or two cents per share, in the fourth
quarter of 1992.

Develcon attributed its regained profitability to reduced debt
costs, increased revenues, better margins, and control of
expenses. The company also said it has not recorded income tax
recovery on the 1992 loss, meaning that loss will be available
to offset future taxable income.

(Grant Buckler/19931110/Press Contact: W.D. Vancoughnett
or Audrey Schneider, Develcon, 306-933-3300)


(NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00010)

IBM Splits Networking Division 11/10/93
SOMERS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1993 NOV 10 (NB) -- IBM has split its
networking operations, creating the networking software and
networking hardware divisions. The company also lured away a
Digital Equipment Corp., executive to head its new networking
hardware Division.

William R. "BJ" Johnson, Jr., formerly vice-president of
corporate marketing at DEC, will take charge of the networking
hardware division on November 15, company spokesman Ray
Gorman said.

Donald A. Haile, who will have responsibility for the networking
software business, had been networking systems director of IBM's
network access business since 1990. Johnson and Haile will both
report to Ellen M. Hancock, senior vice-president and group
executive.

Gorman said splitting the network operations into two divisions
will allow them to focus more closely on their respective areas
"to better meet the needs of our customers."

The networking software division includes: enterprise management,
including the SystemView and NetView products; computer-aided
telephony, including CallPath and DirectTalk; transaction systems,
including CICS and MQSeries; networking products, including VTAM
(Virtual Telecommunications Access Method), TCP/IP (Transmission
Control Protocol/Internet Protocol), and OSI (Open Systems
Interconnection); and enterprise work-group networking, including
OS/2 Communications Manager, AIX SNA services, and PC 3270
emulation.

The networking hardware division includes: wide area networking
(multimedia, wireless, high-bandwidth switches, and networking
controllers); and campus networking (local area network adapters,
intelligent hubs, and routers).

Of the roughly 8,500 people currently working in IBM's networking
operations, about 4,100 now have jobs in the new hardware unit
and the remaining 4,400 in the software unit, Gorman said. The
new structure is effective immediately, and both units are based
in Somers.

(Grant Buckler/19931110/Press Contact: Ray Gorman, IBM,
914-642-5434; Deborah Siegel, IBM, 914-642-5377)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00011)

Powersoft To Buy Watcom 11/10/93
WATERLOO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1993 NOV 10 (NB) -- Watcom
International Corp., one of Canada's oldest software firms, is to
be sold to Powersoft Corp., of Burlington, Massachusetts, in a
share exchange worth about US$48 million.

Powersoft will exchange 1.4 million of its shares for all
outstanding shares of Watcom, said Ian McPhee, president of
Watcom. He said the deal is "effectively a merger," though in
accounting terms it is an acquisition of Watcom by the larger,
publicly traded Powersoft.

Both companies make programming and application development
software. Watcom is best known for programming languages. The
company was founded in 1974 by McPhee and Wes Graham, a
computer science professor at the University of Waterloo. It is
one of a long list of companies that have grown out of Waterloo's
strong mathematics and computer science programs.

McPhee said the deal will let Watcom take advantage of
Powersoft's established marketing organization to promote new
products that are aimed at a wider market than its previous
offerings.

Watcom SQL, a data query tool, was launched for the DOS operating
system in 1992 and for Microsoft Windows at the beginning of
1993. A version for DOS network servers is also on the market
now, and versions for Novell NetWare, OS/2, and Windows NT
servers are in beta testing, McPhee said.

Watcom's next investment would have had to be to develop a sales
force to reach Fortune 1,000 companies, McPhee said. Through the
Powersoft deal, Watcom can instead take advantage of the sales
force the U.S. company already has. "We think it allows us to
fast-forward our business plan" by about two years, McPhee said.

All of Watcom's roughly 85 employees will keep their jobs,
McPhee said. "This is not a deal where the synergy comes from
rationalizing the combined organizations."

(Grant Buckler/19931110/Press Contact: Ian McPhee, Watcom,
519-886-3700)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00012)

France Telecom & Deutsche Telekom To Form Company? 11/10/93
MONTROUGE, FRANCE, 1993 NOV 10 -- After almost a week of
steadily building rumors, France Telecom (FT) has confirmed it is
"discussing the possibility" of teaming up on a Pan-European
telecommunications venture with Deutsche Telecom (DT).

Reporting on the rumors on Cable News Network International
(CNNI) this morning, reporters quoted France Telecom as
confirming that talks were taking place, but nothing else.

A spokesman for France Telecom said that both companies have
a long history of working on joint projects, but that this project is
potentially so large that the European Commission (EC) may have to
be informed if it goes ahead.

Other media sources have quoted Jacques Delors as saying that the
two telecoms companies approached the EC in late September to
explain their possible plans, but that no formal application has
been agreed. EC officials told Newsbytes yesterday that this
situation has not changed.

According to the EC, representatives of Marcel Roulet, president of
France Telecom, and Helmut Ricke, president of Deutsche Telecom,
flew to Brussels on September 27 to discuss their respective plans,
but nothing further had been officially since then.

Industry experts are claiming that any pan-European project --
possibly along the lines of British Telecommunication's Syncordia
project -- would almost certainly have to involve a US partner to
give them the vital transatlantic routes.

As news of the possible deal between FT and DT broke earlier this
week, BT executives were reported to be up in arms over the affair,
claiming that any inter-country deal of this nature, especially
bringing AT&T into the fold, would break EC anti-monopoly
legislation.

In an official statement issued late on Monday, BT officials said
that any comments to the press about the possible joint venture
would be irrelevant "because such an alliance would fly in the
face of EC attempts to liberalize telecommunications in Europe."

(Sylvia Dennis & Steve Gold/19931110/Press & Public Contact:
France Telecom, tel [phone], fax [phone])


(NEWS)(GOVT)(LON)(00013)

Swiss Telecom Brings Forward Privatization Schedule 11/10/93
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND, 1993 NOV 10 (NB) -- While most of the
European Community has knuckled down to the inevitable and
begun privatizing its telecommunications authorities, Swiss
Telecom, the Swiss state telecoms company, has remained
stoically against opening up its market, despite strong and
scarcely-veiled warnings from the European Commission in
Brussels.

There are signs that that attitude may be changing, however, as the
authorities at the company's Zurich headquarters have called upon
the Swiss government to give it the necessary legislation to
allow it to move towards privatization and competing in an open
marketplace.

This surprise move, which comes ahead of expected legislation in
1997 from the European Commission (EC), seems to have been
precipitated by the conditions that the government has imposed
on its operating license.

Newsbytes notes that previously high profit-making international
routes have become leaner picking grounds in the light of free
market international companies moving in the market, while trunk
and local calls are kept artificially low to keep political face in
Switzerland.

According to Swiss Telecom, all the company wants is a more
open marketplace to offer its services on. "We are looking for
a level playing field," a spokesman said.

(Sylvia Dennis/19931110)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(LON)(00014)

 ****Olivetti's De Benedetti Released After Questioning 11/10/93
MILAN, ITALY, 1993 NOV 10 (NB) Carlo de Benedetti, the head of
Olivetti, has been released from the house arrest that occurred
when he surrendered himself for questioning over the alleged
government bribes scandal early last week.

Newsbytes understand that de Benedetti was released from his
house arrest terms in Rome late on Friday last week, following
which he flew in a private jet from Rome to Milan, where he has
an apartment. Newsbytes also notes that Milan is the
headquarters of Compagnie Industriali Riunite (CIR), his own
company.

Olivetti officials have confirmed that de Benedetti is now in
Milan, but were unable to say what charges, if any, are being
considered against him. An official statement issued by Olivetti,
quotes de Benedetti as saying that the courts have allowed him
to leave Rome to fly to Milan, so that he can follow CIR's
activities more closely.

As reported last week, de Benedetti, the respected head of
Olivetti, surrendered himself to Rome's police headquarters
after a warrant was publicly issued for his arrest in connection
with the postal bribes saga.

The warrant for the 58-year-old head of Olivetti was issued 12
days ago following months of painstaking investigation by police
and government officials. The investigation was prompted by de
Benedetti's admission earlier this year that his company
voluntarily paid several million dollars in bribes to secure
major government contracts, notably in the Ministry of Posts.

(Sylvia Dennis/19931110/Press & Public Contact: Olivetti,
tel [phone], fax [phone])


(NEWS)(GOVT)(LON)(00015)

COCOM Ready To Disband After "Work Completed" 11/10/93
OSLO, NORWAY, 1993 NOV 10 (NB) -- Following a secret meeting in
Norway recently, representatives of member countries in the
Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Control (COCOM)
have voted to scrap the informal committee that was set up in the
late 1940s to control exports of technical products to the former
Eastern Bloc.

Although details are sketchy as this issue of Newsbytes goes to
press, the Norwegian Trade Ministry is understood to have announced
that COCOM will disband early next year, ready to reform for other
purposes.

The reason for scrapping COCOM is that the majority of countries for
whom the group was supposed to be preventing access to high-tech
exports from the West have now opened up their markets and have
all but allied themselves with the West.

Officials with the Norwegian trade ministry have gone on record as
claiming that the nucleus of COCOM may be reformed to deal with
the export problems associated with Russia and many of the former
Soviet republics.

Newsbytes understands that, at last week's meeting in Oslo, Sten
Lundbo, a Norwegian foreign minister, was chairman with the other
16 countries in attendance. Lundbo said that the meeting was highly
constructive, but that precise details, along with plans for the
immediate future, were not available for public consumption.

The moves to disband COCOM follow in the wake of the announcement
of British government plans, announced last month, that aim to ease
up on restrictions on technology exports to China and former Soviet
bloc countries. According to Richard Needham, the British Trade
Minister, last month's easing follows COCOM's refocussing of late
last year.

COCOM, which used to be the international agency with the role of
controlling the export of high-technology goods to the former Soviet
bloc, changed its role in the light of the liberalization of those
countries last year.

At a meeting in Paris before Christmas 1992, COCOM members voted
to change the role of the agency to assist, rather than prevent, the
flow of high-tech information to the 25 newly independent nations
of the old Soviet empire. Also in attendance at the meeting were
representatives of those states.

At last December's meeting, US officials with COCOM pledged $11
million to the group to help the former Eastern Bloc countries
develop systems to safeguard advanced technology.

John McEntee, the US Department of Commerce's under-secretary,
said that everyone recognizes that, "The world is still not a safe
place" and that there are still "people that we are going to want
to keep this technology from."

(Steve Gold/19931110)


(NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00016)

 ****IBM Counters NT With OS/2 For Windows 11/10/93
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1993 NOV 10 (NB) -- IBM has made a
direct assault on Microsoft Corp.'s Windows and Windows NT by
announcing OS/2 for Windows, a way those now using Windows
on top of the DOS operating system can move more easily to OS/2.

By simplifying the move from Windows to OS/2, IBM is clearly
seeking to steer Windows users away from the obvious
progression from Windows on DOS to Windows NT.

Lois Dimpfel, director of IBM's Boca Raton programming center,
said OS/2 has advantages over NT in running Windows applications,
such as its ability to run each application in a separate virtual
machine so that the failure of one program will not affect others.

Officially named OS/2 Special Edition for Windows, the new
software installs on a personal computer already equipped with
DOS and Windows. The existing Windows software remains on the
machine and is used to run Windows applications. This also means
IBM will not have to pay royalties to Microsoft on sales of OS/2
for Windows, since its product does not include Windows code.

The existing DOS also remains. OS/2 for Windows bypasses DOS
and runs as a full 32-bit operating system delivering all the
features of OS/2 2.1, Dimpfel said, but the previously existing
DOS remains available and is accessible to run DOS applications
under OS/2 or through a dual-boot option.

Other software installed on the computer does not have to be
removed or re-installed when OS/2 for Windows is added.

The software occupies about 20 megabytes (MB) of disk space,
Dimpfel said. The combination of OS/2 for Windows and
Windows 3.1 demands the same memory and storage as OS/2
2.1, she added.

OS/2 for Windows comes with IBM's Multimedia Presentation
Manager and, like OS/2 2.1, with support for the Personal
Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA) 2.0
standard for plug-in memory cards and peripherals.

Generally available now, the software has an introductory price
of $49 when sold on diskettes or $39 on compact disk read-only
memory (CD-ROM), in effect until February 9. Additional licenses
without manuals are $29. After February 9, the prices will be
$149 for the diskette version, $139 for CD-ROM, and $119 for
additional licenses. IBM said the software is now available in
more than 13 languages, through its reseller channels and IBM
Direct.

(Grant Buckler/19931110/Press Contact: Rob Crawley, IBM,
512-823-1779; Public Contact: IBM, 800-3IBM-OS2)


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

Will Viacom Be Paramount Winner? 11/10/93
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1993 NOV 10 (NB) -- Many observers
maintain that, for the first time in weeks, Viacom looks like it
may win Paramount Communications after all.

BellSouth seems to be behind this, although the company repeated
its refusal to comment on its discussions. Press reports indicate
that the south's regional Bell is taking a hard line on a potential
investment in QVC, which might total as much as $1.5 billion. As
a result, QVC head Barry Diller has recently made statements
indicating he might be interested in "other opportunities" besides
Paramount.

Diller must move quickly, because Viacom has increased the value
of its cash tender offer for 51 percent of Paramount, putting its
price ahead of that offered by QVC. QVC seemed to be moving
toward an increased bid of its own in recent weeks, with
BellSouth reportedly poised to take-out Liberty Media's interest
in QVC, easing anti-trust concerns, and with QVC ending merger
discussions with the Home Shopping Network.

Meanwhile, Viacom continued to turn on the heat. It amended its
anti-trust suit against Tele-Communications Inc., a QVC investor,
adding Comcast Corp., as a defendant. The suit alleges that
proposed mergers among Bell Atlantic, TCI and Liberty are a part
of the pattern of anti-competitive conduct. In its demand for
damages it points to the $2 billion it has added to its Paramount
bid, claiming it would not be necessary without those actions. The
suit adds that even without Bell Atlantic, defendants TCI, Liberty,
Comcast and what Viacom called "their co-conspirators" -- recent
QVC allies Cox and Advance -- "control approximately one in three
cable television subscribers."

Finally, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People and the League of United Latin American Citizens filed
papers asking the Federal Communications Commission to block
QVC Network Paramount bid, claiming that TCI has not complied
with affirmative action and equal employment laws.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19931110/Press Contact: Viacom, Raymond
A. Boyce, 212-258-6530)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00018)

Boca Modem Says Premium Exists For Wireless Service 11/10/93
BOCA RATON, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1993 NOV 10 (NB) -- A year ago,
wireless and wired modems were selling at equal prices and were,
in fact, the same. Now, thanks to Spectrum's patents, that is no
longer the case. But that may not be a bad deal for cellular data
users.

To be fair, wireless modems have always required special
connectors to work with cellular phones. Each connector had to
be customized to the phones, because the connectors on cellular
phones are not standardized. Also, circuits are required to fool
a modem into thinking the cellular line is just like a regular
phone line, which it isn't. The "dial tone" you hear when you
pick up an unengaged line on a regular phone, for instance,
does not exist in the cellular world.

What Spectrum has offered in the past are special connectors
called Axsys and Axcell, which included the needed circuits. Now,
under new Chairman John Sculley, Spectrum is working hard to
make those needed circuits a standard feature on modem chip sets,
however, one which must be "turned on" by software supplied by
modem makers in the after-market. The company recently signed a
license agreement with Rockwell, the largest maker of modem chip
sets, to this effect, and has also concluded a similar agreement
with US Robotics, which uses digital signal processors its
engineers customize in its modems.

Megahertz Corp., another Spectrum licensee, last week announced a
"PC Card" modem under PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card
Industry Association) standards which includes the Spectrum
technology, at $459 retail. Now Boca Research has announced its
own PCMCIA modem, which runs at the same speed as the Megahertz
model -- 14,400 bits-per-second (bps). However, the Boca modem
sells for $369.

A Boca spokesman told Newsbytes the company's modem is
not intended for wireless data service, including neither the
Spectrum-patented technology nor MNP 10, an error-control
protocol which works better than the industry-standard V.42bis
in a wireless environment. Like the Megahertz modem, of course,
the Boca PCMCIA modem includes support for fax service, at a
maximum speed of six pages-per-minute, under a standard called
Class 2 which allows a variety of software to work with it.

Boca is not really a newcomer to the modem market though. It
now owns The Complete PC, a long-time supplier of modems to
the retail channel.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19931110/Press Contact: Boca Research, Gale
Blackburn, 407-997-6227; Reader Contact: tel [phone],
fax [phone])


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00019)

Nextel Signs Deal With Japan's NTT 11/10/93
RUTHERFORD, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1993 NOV 10 (NB)--- A day
after announcing it would acquire many of Motorola's SMR radio
frequencies for $1.8 billion in stock, Nextel Communications
has signed a technology alliance with NTT of Japan.

Nextel said NTT would loan its engineers to help it design and
manage its nationwide license of SMR services, and Nextel will
pay $7 million for those services. Nextel now has licenses for
frequencies covering nearly the entire US, and will use Motorola
technology to digitize and increase the calling capacity of those
frequencies.

It will also re-design its local networks in line with cellular
networks. NTT is expected to help Nextel link those networks to
offer "roaming" service like that of cellular networks. In addition,
NTT will buy 1.5 million Nextel class A common shares for $75
million and win a seat on the Nextel board.

An NTT executive, quoted in a Nextel press release, noted the
company is also keen to work with Motorola, Northern Telecom,
Matsushita and Comcast in supporting Nextel's development.

Nextel stock had already risen sharply in the wake of the
Motorola agreement, which covers 2,500 licenses in such markets
as New England, the mid-Atlantic states, California, and Texas.

The deal followed similar agreements among Motorola and two
other SMR companies -- Dial Page and CenCall Communications --
in which Motorola sold SMR licenses for stock in the hopes it will
also be able to sell more equipment to the companies down the
road. Dial Page and CenCall both have the equivalent of "roaming"
agreements with Nextel.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19931110/Press Contact: Nextel
Communications, Jack Markell, 201-438-1400)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00020)

CompuServe Announces PC World's Shopping Service 11/10/93
COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1993 NOV 10 (NB) -- PC World will open
what it calls an "on-line high technology shopping mall" on
CompuServe. PC World Exec/Direct will open December 15.

The deal means that CompuServe has firm agreements for
services from both major computer publishers. It already hosts
Ziffnet, produced by the same company that publishes PC Magazine.

In addition to shopping services, Ziffnet offers on-line access to
the company's writers, messaging forums on technical subjects,
and collections of software. Ziffnet, however, is an option for
CompuServe users, sold directly through Ziff, while the PC World
section will be a standard feature.

A PC World spokesman told Newsbytes that the company's flagship
PC World magazine is also available to America Online users as
well as those on CompuServe. The shopping service is exclusive to
CompuServe, noted Lloyd Benson, but parent International Data
Group is far from done on-line. "IDG's got plans for much bigger
things in the future," he said.

In addition to the shopping service and PC World, PC World Online
also features current editions of its Lotus Edition and Multimedia
World, as well as a daily news and press release service, product
reviews and "Best Buy" recommendations, and a forum where
users can download software and post questions for editors.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19931110/Press Contact: Lloyd Benson, for PC
World, 617-661-6330)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00021)

Telescan Reports Profit On Increased Revenues 11/10/93
HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1993 NOV 10 (NB) -- Telescan, the second
on-line company to go public, following America Online, reported a
small profit on greatly increased revenues for the quarter ending
in September.

The company, which hosts financial services for Charles Schwab
and Fidelity, database services for Editor & Publisher and the
Hollywood Reporter, and other services offered on what amounts
to an "OEM (original equipment manufacturer) basis," meaning they
are sold by other companies, said it earned $3,336 million for the
quarter on $1.76 million in revenue.

This compares with a loss of $283,883 a year ago, on revenues of
about $978,000. The quarter included a loss of $32,000 from
Knowledge Express, a technology transfer database service and
the first Telescan service in which the parent company holds a
majority interest.

In interviews with Newsbytes, Telescan officials have said that
the strength of their service is the speed with which complex
database searches can be performed, adding that in general they
offer fast response to user queries. Many services, like America
Online, have reportedly had trouble in recent months with response
times due to fast growth, but Telescan reports no such problems.

Analysts like Joshua Harris of Jupiter Communications have also
said in recent months that they expect large media companies to
renew their efforts to buy-out on-line specialty companies in
coming years, as the on-line market becomes more important and
merges with the planned "Information Superhighway."

America Online recently had to convince investor Paul Allen, a
co-founder of Microsoft, not to make a move to acquire all of it.
By going public, as it did only this month, Telescan puts itself
in a better position to attract some of this new capital entering
the on-line market.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19931110/Press Contact: David L.
Brown, Telescan, 713-952-1060)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00022)

INDE Rethinks Course On 900 Calls? 11/10/93
SHERMAN OAKS, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 NOV 10 (NB) --
Independent Telemedia Group has apparently reversed course,
just months after changing its name to reflect its integration
of 900-number pay-per-call operations with information services.

Independent Telemedia, whose NASDAQ stock trading symbol is
INDE, said it agreed to sell most of its service bureau and
ConnectCard assets for $2.42 million to Network Telephone
Services Inc. ConnectCard was a form of pre-payment for 900-
number services. Of the price, $2 million is in cash, the rest is
a note payable in 10 months with the first payment in four
months.

NTS had, in October, 1991, acquired the remaining assets of
Telesphere, once the fourth-leading provider of 900-number
services, after that company met financial difficulties
following negative publicity about the exchange.

In a statement on the sale, INDE officials said that, "The sale
disposes of certain underperforming assets and provides for
favorable service bureau rates for its remaining ongoing
Information Provider division," although it will cut the
company's revenues by about one-third.

In a July interview with Newsbytes, INDE Chief Financial Officer
Lewis Eisaguirre had said the company won agreements with
regional Bell companies and major independents for exchange of
what is called "BNA" (billing number and address) data. Such
databases are the most accurate way of telling exactly where to
bill someone for phone calls.

INDE was at that point combining BNA data with its own database
of 900-number deadbeats, hoping to cut the non-payment rate on
such calls from a high of 66 percent at the height of negative
900-number publicity and government action to something
like 1-2 percent.

Eisaguirre also said in July that INDE hoped to win the business
of information providers from AT&T and MCI, the other participants
in the industry, because it knows the business running information
services not just on the 900 area code, but on the toll-free 800
number code as well.

No comment was available from Independent Telemedia and its
public relations counsel concerning this transaction by
Newsbytes press time.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19931110/Press Contact: Independent
Telemedia Group Inc., Lew Eisaguirre, 818-501-4633)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00023)

Killen & Associates Report On Multimedia In Education 11/10/93
PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 NOV 10 (NB) -- Education
should be a primary target market of the "information
superhighway," according to a new report by Killen & Associates,
designed for sale to technology companies like Bell Atlantic/TCI,
Liberty Media, Microsoft, IBM, and Intel.

Michael Killen says the potential education market for
technology is huge. There are 80 million functionally illiterate
adults, 105 million literate adults, 70 million of whom are
currently computer users, 45 million school-age children, and 20
million pre-school children. They could be a $250 billion market
for multimedia products and services.

"The nation has already invested $4.8 trillion in today's dollars
to 'educate' the country's 80 million functionally illiterate
adults -- those who lack the essential skills to free themselves
from a life of poverty and dependency and are an economic burden
on society," Killen wrote in a press statement.

"Lifelong Learning: Multimedia Opportunities," is a 160-page study
that focuses on business opportunities created by lifelong learning.
It is backed by five discussions on "Education Markets" sold as an
Executive Video briefing.

Speakers include Michael Sullivan, executive director agency for
Instructional Technology; Dr. Pamela Pease, vice president and
director of educational development for the Mind Extension
University; Mary Eicher, distance learning solutions operations
manager for Hewlett-Packard; Dr. Lionel Baldwin, president of the
National Technological University, and James Ginsburg, senior
information officer for Jones International Inc., and The Mind
Extension University.

Newsbytes discussed the topic with Killen. "Education is a
difficult sell" in the mass market, he admitted, "Everyone talks
about it but it's certainly not a national priority." But among
"elite" audiences it is a different story. "People who've been in
education marketing for years have been frustrated with public
schooling, the budget process, and teachers' unions."

Continued Killen, "I'm not trying to change public opinion, or the
school system. We're fighting no battles. What we're saying
is that technology is going to change the control the public
school system has on education. We see it happening. We can
forecast that technology is going to break the hold unions,
principals and school systems have. As soon as you give a child
access to a desktop computer and information services, that child
will take off on their own path of lifelong learning, and to an
extent the school and teachers remain important, but they're
irrelevant to a lot of things that child is doing. What that
means to marketeers and business people is a market in the
home for education products like we've never seen before."

Some analysts contend that a major danger is that, while upper
and middle class parents might use technology to provide their
kids the best education, poor parents will not be able to, thus
increasing the gap between rich and poor. Killen said he is
personally very sensitive to that equity issue.

"We've raised three kids, but we have a 12 year old adopted child,
a black child, he said. "I can see the elitists' gaining more benefit
from this trend, but I can also see Washington recognizing this
and doing something. Clinton has a plan to limit welfare payments
to two years -- after that it's tied to education. We could give
each welfare mother a computer, an account on a cable and telco,
and require that if they take money for raising kids they must
turn on that terminal and learn."

Killen concluded, "If people can package education properly, it's
a perfect market for the information superhighway in the mass
market."

(Dana Blankenhorn/19931110/Press Contact: Killen &
Associates, Jules Street, 415-323-3842)


(NEWS)(IBM)(LAX)(00024)

Maxtor Intros New PCMCIA Products 11/10/93
SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 NOV 10 (NB) -- Maxtor has
introduced the Mobilemax family of mass-storage products for
the Personal Computer Memory Card Industry Association (PCMCIA)
market. The cards include hard disk drives, flash memory
products, and a card reader called the Deskrunner.

Predictions are that the mobile computing market is on the edge of
skyrocketing growth from current levels of one million units to
over 30 million units. Dataquest says shipments of 1.8-inch
PCMCIA hard drives alone will increase from 150,000 units to 13
million units between 1993 and 1996. Even desktop computers
will be equipped with PCMCIA slots in order to transfer data
and several such announcements have been made by IBM, Hewlett
Packard, and Digital Equipment Corp (DEC).

Newsbytes understands announcements planned at the computer
industry trade show Comdex next week will include portable
computer products from several manufacturers equipped with
PCMCIA slots that are Type III or stacked Type II (two Type II
drives on top of one another which acts as a Type III slot).

Maxtor's Mobilemax hard drive is a 1.8-inch, 105 megabyte (MB)
PCMCIA Type III hard drive. Other hard disk drive manufacturers
are expected to announce large PCMCIA drives requiring the Type
III slot at the computer industry trade show Comdex next week.

The new Flash Memory Card product line from Maxtor consists of
a series of PCMCIA Type I cards in capacities of 2MB, 4MB, 8MB,
12MB, 16MB and 20MB. Deskrunner is a PCMCIA Type III slot that
fits into a 3.5-inch drive bay on desktop personal computers (PCs).
The product requires a minimum of a 286 PC running at eight
megahertz (MHz) and can read and write to the credit-card sized
cards using standard DOS or Windows commands.

(Linda Rohrbough/19931110/Press Contact: Holly Campbell,
Maxtor, tel [phone], fax [phone])


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00025)

Semiconductor Book-To-Bill Down In October 11/10/93
SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 NOV 10 (NB) -- The book-to-
bill ratio, the main indicator in the semiconductor industry, was
down slightly for October. However, the Semiconductor Industry
Association (SIA) which publishes the numbers, says the ratio
indicates the skyrocketing growth that has been going on for
nearly two years, is reaching a plateau.

October bookings (orders) were $2.175 billion, up .05 percent
from September and up nearly 21 percent over last year.
Billings (shipments) were $2.180 billion, up 1.7 percent from
September, and nearly 35 percent higher than 1992 figures.

The preliminary ratio is at 1.0 for October, down from 1.01 in
September and down from last year's 1.11 figure. The figures
for the book-to-bill are based on a three-month moving average
determined by numbers collected from leading semiconductor
companies participating in the World Semiconductor Trade
Statistics (WSTS) program.

The SIA says the market remains strong and is predicting 29
percent growth to $77.3 billion worldwide for 1993 and a
continued climb to $103.4 billion by 1996. The North American
market is expected to take the lead this year for the first
time since 1985.

(Linda Rohrbough/19931110/Press Contact: Tom Beerman, SIA,
tel [phone], fax [phone])


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00026)

 ****Happy Birthday, Computer Virus -- Born At USC 11/10/93
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 NOV 10 (NB) -- On
November 11, ten years ago, a graduate student named Fred Cohen
introduced the first program for a working computer virus in a
computer security class taught by Leonard Adleman, a professor
at the University of Southern California (USC). Adleman, upon
viewing the rogue program, was the first to dub it a "virus."

Cohen, now a Ph.D. and head of Management Analytics in Hudson,
Ohio, has since published over 30 journal articles, several
papers, and even a couple of books on the subject. The first
paper was at the International Federation of Information
Processing (IFIP) conference in April of 1984.

"I was sitting in class one day and it just came to me, just
like the picture of the light bulb going on over someone's
head," Cohen told Newsbytes.

Adleman told Newsbytes that when Cohen first expressed interest
in writing a virus, he wondered why anyone would bother. "It's
just too obvious and easy." Cohen recalled hearing about a
university who instructed students to write a computer virus as
part of the coursework in computer science, but dropped the
assignment after a year because it was just too easy.

While Adleman named the rogue program a virus, he says there
may be a reference in a science fiction book published in the
1960's that predates his use of the term. "But if I had called
it something else, I'm sure we'd be using that term now."

Introduction of the computer virus was inevitable, Adleman
indicated, when asked if he felt he or Cohen could be blamed
for the problem. "It was necessary and significant research,
and part of our jobs," Adleman added.

The reaction of the scientific community to Cohen's work was
mostly indifference or disbelief, Cohen commented to Newsbytes.
"The scientific community failed -- they were just so bound
into their own context. When they finally woke up, they ignored
the five years of research I had done by 1991."

Now Cohen is on the other side of the fence, pushing the
concept of benevolent computer viruses. Cohen says benevolent
viruses could offer many useful functions to computer users,
especially on a network. These functions could include such
rudimentary tasks as deleting unnecessary temporary files that
have been forgotten, checking to see if an update to a program
has been distributed throughout a network, optimizing systems
to make them more efficient, and automating network management.

As for unexpected side effects to such benevolent viruses,
Cohen said lots of widely accepted programs have unexpected and
undesirable side effects -- that doesn't mean we shouldn't use
them. He offered the example of the bug in Windows 3.1 that
went through and deleted all the README files on the entire
hard disk drives of the millions of users who installed it.

The same people who were resistant to the concept that computer
viruses in the beginning are the ones now who are resisting the
concept of benevolent computer viruses, Cohen maintains. But he
plans to persevere with the idea and has written a book on the
subject, scheduled for publication by John Wiley & Sons in 1994
entitled "It's Alive."

(Linda Rohrbough/19931110/Press Contact: Eric Mankin, USC PR,
tel [phone], fax [phone])


(NEWS)(UNIX)(BOS)(00027)

SunIntegration Intros Sun Enterprise Toolset 11/10/93
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1993 NOV 10 (NB) --
SunIntegration Services, the recently formed integration arm of
Sun Microsystems, has announced the first five packages in a new
line of commercial products for easing the transition from
mainframe-based to client-server computing.

The new Sun Enterprise Toolset stems from technologies developed
internally to assist Sun Microsystems in its own migration to the
client-server environment, officials told journalists in a
teleconference.

The initial suite includes: SunDANS (Distributed Administration of
Network Software), a product for automatically distributing,
managing, tracking, and installing software products across any
network; and SunRAI (Remote Application Interface), an interface
for direct, unmodified communications between Unix-based and
legacy system-based applications.

Also in the set are: Sun Paperless Reporter, a general-purpose
electronic distribution and viewing system; Sun ConsoleServer, a
product for permitting control of multiple local and remote systems
from a single location in the data center; and Sun DataCenter
Scripts, a set of programs for automating and customizing data
center administration tasks.

Over the past year, SunIntegration has established itself, set up
an infrastructure, and launched its first projects involving
integration services for customer companies, said Bill Coleman,
vice president and general manager of SunIntegration.

"But now, we've entered a new phase, in which we are
commercializing Sun's internal technologies," Coleman added.
These technologies have been developed over the past four-and-
a-half years as part of a company-wide campaign to "run Sun on
Sun," he explained. "In doing this, we've discovered many holes in
the software environment."

In response, Sun has built applications for managing the
multivendor computing environment effectively and securely, and
for reducing costs. "Thus we're announcing the beginning of that
solution for our customers, the Sun Enterprise Toolset."

SunIntegration's first commercial offerings are unique, right
now, in the marketplace -- bringing another dimension to existing
rightsizing solutions such as Computer Associates' CA Unicenter,
asserted Ajay Singh, manager of marketing support services.
"We believe that, over time, some of the packages (from other
vendors) will start to adopt some of these features as they start
to get their (products) adopted and used in a distributed
environment," he said. However, Sun has no current plans to
license the technology.

The new tools generally require a fair amount of customization,
especially for integration in multivendor environments, but
can in some instances be used right off the shelf, the officials
suggested.

"For instance, SunDANS uses NFS (Network File Server) for remotely
loading and controlling the application software. So any system
that uses NFS, including PCs, can take advantage of it immediately,
with no modification," said Coleman.

Users can purchase the set of products individually, or as
an entire suite, according to Singh. Over the coming fiscal year,
SunIntegration will be announcing more packages, also based on
internally developed technologies, he added.

The first five market entries from SunIntegration represent only
25 percent of all the tools that have been developed by Sun's
internal organization, pointed out Bruce Hoiem, director of
technical services.

SunDANS, the new distribution and management tool, is unique in the
range of functions it performs, according to Coleman. "(SunDANS)
maintains information on what software goes to whom,
automatically installs the software, keeps the versioning up to
date, manages floating licenses, and basically takes all the tedious
work out of the applications management process," he said.

Sun is using the tool internally to manage and distribute more than
250 versions of over 100 applications. "We have reduced our system
administration support load by 20 percent worldwide just with this
one application," Coleman maintained.

SunRAI, on the other hand, allows a client-server relational
database management system (RDBMS) to synchronize transactions
with an IBM mainframe database management system. Sun is
employing SunRAI to synchronize the transactions of mainframe
databases with those of Sybase and Oracle on the company's
worldwide internal network.

"SunRAI has reduced our operating expenses by eliminating any dual
entry for the distributed databases and also by (speeding up) such
things as order entry and order compliance," he told the journalists.

Sun Paperless Reporter, another member of the Sun Enterprise
Toolset, has been saving Sun about a quarter of a million pages of
paper a week, he claimed.

Paperless Reporter allows reports originating on IBM mainframe,
Sun, and other systems to be automatically distributed to local
file servers for viewing by authorized end users. In addition to
eliminating the need to keep hard copy reports on file, the system
provides reliable and instantaneous distribution, according to
Coleman.

Sun ConsoleServer, a tool for systems administrators, allows
console functions to be accessed from remote locations, and also
logs a history of console messages.

A fifth product in the suite -- Sun DataCenter Scripts -- consists
of tools for automating and customizing system administration
as well as Sybase and Oracle administration.

"We've had a number of requests (from customers) for (other)
products that we use ourselves," stated Coleman. For example,
one other tool being used internally is a sales desk product for
processing sales orders and configuring systems, he illustrated.

SunIntegration is now monitoring its customer base to determine
which of the remaining internal products are highest in demand,
said Singh. The assessment process will also include a return-on-
investment (ROI) evaluation.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19931110/Press contacts: Carol Sacks, Sun
Microsystems, 415-336-0521; Eileen Smith, Hi-Tech
Communications for Sun, 415-984-7000)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00028)

Sharp Links With Asahi On Solar Power For The Home 11/10/93
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1993 NOV 10 (NB) -- Sharp says it has signed an
agreement with Asahi Solar concerning the development of a
solar energy device for individual consumers.

The agreement calls for Sharp to develop the system, and Asahi
Solar to sell and provide maintenance services. The companies
expect to release the solar energy device for individual
households within two years.

The device will actually be developed by Sharp, which has
advanced technology concerning solar energy batteries. The device
will be placed on the roof of a house, and will reportedly supply
almost all the necessary electricity for the household.

When the sun is not out, regular electricity can be obtained from
an electric power station. However, the price is high. It will cost
eight million yen ($80,000) to 10 million yen ($100,000).

The Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry is
planning to support the cost by contributing about two thirds of
the price. The Japanese government expects that about 70,000
households will install this kind of solar energy device by the
year 2,000 in Japan.

Asahi Solar is currently selling solar energy-based water
warmer units.

(Masayuki "Massey" Miyazawa/19931108/Press Contact:
Sharp, tel [phone], fax [phone])


(NEWS)(APPLE)(LAX)(00029)

 ****Apple PowerBook Sales Pass One Million 11/10/93
CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 NOV 10 (NB) -- Apple
Computer has announced that it has sold over one million
Powerbook notebook computers since the introduction of the
product line in 1991.

Much later to the market with its notebook computer than the
IBM compatible personal computer (PC) world, the unit was a
success from the beginning for Apple's portable-hungry users.
The notebook was initially only available with a monochrome
display. Apple has since introduced color models and just
las month announced the lightest active-matrix color
Powerbook at under five pounds.

The Powerbook has had its problems. The company beefed up the
hard disk drives to 40 megabyte (MB) capacity in the 100 models
shortly after their introduction because customers complained
that 20 MB drives were just too small. Then in September, 1992,
Apple had to recall 60,000 of the 100 models in order to fix a
long lead extending from the motherboard that was melting a
hole in the plastic outside housing of some of the units.

The success of the Powerbook has helped keep Apple going,
despite losses in other areas. Like most notebook computers,
the Powerbook has steadily dropped in price. The 100 model,
introduced at a retail price of $2,299, has since been
discontinued. Now the low-end Powerbooks start at a retail
price of $1,599. The PC notebook world has also begun to
imitate the notebook's distinctive built-in track-ball mouse
controller placed just below the space-bar.

(Linda Rohrbough/19931110/Press Contact: Betty Taylor,
Apple Computer, tel [phone], fax [phone])


(NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00030)

 ****IBM Unveils Multi-Pronged PowerPC Strategy 11/10/93
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1993 NOV 10 -- IBM's recently
established Power Personal Systems division has unveiled a
multi-pronged strategy for PowerPC that includes ports of
Windows NT, Sun Solaris, and Taligent to PowerPC, along with
the development of a "human interface" equipped with an
intelligent agent.

IBM also announced three new PowerPC-based computer systems,
set for shipment in the second half of 1994, and the PowerPC
Reference Platform, a set of technical specifications for other
vendors to follow in migrating to PowerPC.

The ultimate goal of the wide ranging strategy is to promote an
application-rich, open systems RISC (reduced instruction-set
computer)-based environment that is able to run across a wide
range of hardware, right on down to the mobile PC level, said
Richard A. Guarino, general manager, systems development and
marketing, in a teleconference held today, in which Newsbytes
participated.

The first PowerPC systems to ship will be AIX and Workplace OS,
according to Guarino. The newly introduced Windows NT, Taligent,
and Sun-based PowerPC systems will be delivered later on.

With today's announcements, IBM hopes to encourage more
independent software developers to create PowerPC-based
applications, Guranino said. IBM hopes that, eventually, all
32-bit operating systems will move to PowerPC, he added.

The new PowerPC implementations will include a traditional
desktop PC based on the already shipping 601 chip, an "ergonomic"
bookshelf-type desktop PC based on the 603, and a notebook PC,
also based on the 603.

All three implementations will incorporate an internal CD-ROM
drive, built-in microphones, speakers, and options for pen-based
input, video playback/recording, image capture, audio-graphic
conferencing (shared whiteboard) and telephony.

The systems, which will be displayed at Comdex, will support
applications written for OS/2, Macintosh, Unix, DOS and Windows.

Planned for the future, and also set to be shown at Comdex, is
a "human interface," complete with intelligent agents and
"conversational surrogates," or animated personalities that
talk and listen while reacting with facial expressions.

In years ahead, IBM plans to add continuous dictation recognition,
wired and wireless videoconferencing, and software-generated
three-dimensional graphics to the PowerPC's human interface,
Guarino said.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19931110/Press contact: Tim Ohsann, IBM,
914-766-3764; Technology Solutions for IBM, 212-505-9900)