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/NB930527

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(NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00001)

 ****Canadian Piracy Battle Heats Up With Charges, Hotline 05/27/93
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1993 MAY 27 (NB) -- The Canadian Alliance
Against Software Theft (CAAST) has announced new offensives in its
war against software piracy.

CAAST announced that after an investigation carried out with its
support, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have laid 63 charges
against Rexcan Circuits, a Belleville, Ontario, circuit-board
manufacturer, and two of its executives, for allegedly copying and
distributing software illegally. A preliminary hearing may be held
by this fall.

This is the first time criminal charges have been laid against a
computer user in Canada -- as opposed to a dealer -- for software
piracy, according to James Courtney, general manager of Quarterdeck
Office Systems Canada, one of CAAST's member companies.

At the same time, CAAST announced the inauguration of two anti-
piracy hotlines meant to let Canadians report software piracy, as
well as obtaining educational materials on piracy and materials to
help them audit their own companies' compliance with software
copyright laws.

Courtney said that CAAST will publicize the hotlines -- one each for
the English and French languages -- through Canadian trade
magazines, and may also try publicity schemes like information
enclosed with new software packages or stickers that can be placed
on computers.

Courtney told Newsbytes that CAAST hopes that tips received through
the hotline will make it easier to go after computer users that
pirate software. Charges laid in the past have been against dealers
and investigators can catch those pirates fairly easily just by
walking into stores and buying the offending goods.

He added that CAAST is not encouraging anonymous tips -- "we would
like the people to identify themselves" -- but that if several
anonymous tips were received about the same company CAAST would have
to look more closely.

Newsbytes notes that the hotline numbers are 800-263-9700 (English)
and 800-267-2875 (French).

For computers users who fear their organizations may be unwittingly
breaking the law, CAAST is also offering its aid in voluntary
software audits. The group will also approach many organizations
suspected of piracy with the offer of a voluntary audit first,
keeping litigation as a last resort. However, Courtney said, in
cases where software copying is blatant and clearly deliberate,
CAAST may lay charges right away.

Two Ontario companies have already participated in voluntary
audits, officials said. If the audit finds unauthorized software,
the company is required to replace it with a legal copy and, in
some cases, make a financial contribution to CAAST.

CAAST also announced charges under the Copyright Act against
Duncan Computer Corp. of Regina and its owner, John Duncan. The
group also said it had obtained damages in federal civil cases
against Compumax Computer Systems of Vancouver and Central
Microsystems of Montreal.

The CAAST member companies are Autodesk Canada, Borland Canada,
Computer Associates Canada, Lotus Development Canada, Microsoft
Canada, Novell Canada, and Quarterdeck Canada.

(Grant Buckler/19930527/Press Contact: Allan Reynolds, CAAST,
416-598-8988, fax [phone])


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BOS)(00002)

Datawatch Sells Tempest Division, Turns Solely To Software 05/27/93
WILMINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1993 MAY 27 (NB) -- Owing to a
decision to turn all company efforts toward software, Datawatch has
sold its Tempest Products Division, a producer of Tempest-secure
workstations and peripherals, to Irvine, CA-based Secure Systems
Group (SSG).

Under the terms of the deal, SSG, a vendor dedicated to the defense
market, will pay Datawatch $2.8 million in promissory notes, along
with potential future royalties on product sales.

In the wake of the divestiture, Datawatch has been trimmed down to
two components: the Triangle Software Division and Personics.

Triangle's principle products are Virex and Virex for the PC,
packages that detect, repair and monitor for viruses on Macs and
IBM-compatible PCs, respectively. Personics' major offering is
Monarch, which provides data access, translation and reporting
capabilities for networked PCs.

"Now we can devote all of our energies to achieving our corporate
mission -- to build a substantial software-driven company through
internal growth and acquisition," said Thomas R. Foley, president
and CEO of Datawatch, when announcing the deal.

Datawatch added that Virex and Virex for the PC to its lineup last
fall, after purchasing the products from the Utility Products
Division of Norwood, MA-based Microcom.

Foley also reported that, prior to the sale, Datawatch had explored
a variety of alternative strategies for the Tempest Products
Division. "The market for Tempest computer equipment has been in
steep decline," he said. "The Tempest Products Division had become a
substantial drain on the company's earnings, cash and management
resources."

For its part, SSG will gain from the pact through marketing
synergies and economies of scale, Datawatch officials explained.
SSG produces Tempest versions of the IBM PS/2 computer line,
IBM/Lexmark laser printer line, and computer peripherals. SSG also
operates an NSA-endorsed Tempest test facility in Reston, VA.

SSG will conduct its Datawatch operations out of part of the present
Datawatch facility, and will retain the approximately 40 people now
employed by the Tempest Products Division.

Also under the agreement, Datawatch will incur a one-time charge to
earnings of $1.4 million for asset writedowns, and an anticipated
operating loss from the discontinued operations for the quarter
ending June 30.

The charge includes $250,000 to SSG for assistance provided to
Datawatch during a transition period, including helping Datawatch
to collect currently outstanding accounts receivables from Tempest
sales.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19930527/Press contact: Bruce R. Gardner,
Datawatch, tel [phone], ext 816)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00003)

Cable & Wireless; Telecom Eireann -- Talks In Progress 05/27/93
LONDON, ENGLAND, 1993 MAY 27 (NB) -- Cable & Wireless, the parent
company to Mercury Communications, has taken the unusual step of
announcing it is in active discussions with Telecom Eireann, the
Irish state telecoms company.

According to Cable & Wireless, discussions between the two companies
taking place at a high level. C&W officials have stressed that the
talks are still at a very early stage, but sources in the telecom
trade suggest that C&W will take a strategic chunk of TE's
shareholding. This could cause a headache for British Telecom, which
is on the verge of its third state share sell-off, and which works
very closely with the Irish telecoms company.

According to a report in the Observer, a national daily paper in
London, C&W's stake in Telecom Eireann would give the company an
interesting boost to its resources, which are stretched in Northern
Ireland. Linking to the TE network would allow C&W to market its
Mercury telecoms services in both Northern and Southern Ireland.

The Observer, quoting sources close to C&W, suggests that the
company will take a 25 percent stake in Telecom Eireann. This would
cost C&W around UKP 1,000 million, a large amount of money,
Newsbytes notes.

(Steve Gold/19930527)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00004)

Comdex: Zeos Subsidiary Intros IDE-To-PCI Interface Chip 05/27/93
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1993 MAY 27 (NB) -- Attendees at the
annual Spring Comdex trade show in Atlanta this week were introduced
to a new interface chip designed to connect IDE disk drives and
other input/output devices to the new Intel-backed Peripheral
Component Interconnect (PCI) local bus standard.

The chip was developed by PCTech, a Lake City, Minnesota-based
subsidiary of Zeos International. Designated the RZ1000, the chip is
fully PCI 2.0 compliant and is designed to reduce the cost and
enhance performance of PC systems that use the new PCI standard. The
company says it does that by allowing use of low-cost IDE hard
drives while achieving a level of performance not possible with ISA
(industry standard architecture)-based IDE interfaces.

PCTech claims that the RZ1000 integrates several separate electronic
components into a single integrated chip to achieve the PCI to IDE
interface that's fully compatible with existing IDE software and
commands. Up to four IDE devices can be supported and no special
software or drivers are required. The RZ1000's features include an
IDEa port, which allows other standard ISA-type peripheral devices
such as SCSI controllers, serial or parallel ports, and data
compression circuits to be moved to the PCI local bus/CPU interface.

The PCI local bus interface was first introduced in June of 1992. PCI
is an open architecture standard designed to eliminate PC performance
bottlenecks by providing a high performance, processor independent
data path between the CPU and peripheral devices. PCTech says it's
interested in licensing the chip, and a patent is pending.

(Jim Mallory/19930527/Press contact: Rick Apple, Zeos International,
612-623-9614; Reader contact: PCTech, 612-345-4555)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00005)

Lasermaster Enters Japanese Plain Paper Typesetter Market 05/27/93
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1993 MAY 27 (NB) -- Lasermaster
Technologies has entered into separate agreements with two firms to
distribute the company's plain paper typesetters in the Japanese
market.

The company has signed agreements with Kanematsu Corporation and
Phoenix International to distribute the Lasermaster Unity 1200XLJ
plain paper typesetters. Kanematsu is a trading company with annual
sales of $46 billion, and will distribute the Lasermaster products
through its Business Links Ltd subsidiary. Phoenix International is
a specialized distributor of computer peripherals, and worked with
Lasermaster in testing and configuring a Japanese language
typesetter product.

Lasermaster CEO Mel Masters says the company introduced a special
Japanese language version of its large format Unity 1200XLJ in
January of this year. Since then, said Masters, "With the help of
Phoenix and Kanematsu, we have achieved sales in excess of $1.3
million. That's a significant contribution to our business."

Masters added that the demand for typeset quality printing is
significant in the Japanese market because of the precision and
detail of the Japanese language characters, which the resolution
enhancement of Lasermaster's TurboRes enhances.

Lasermaster introduced 1200 dot-per-inch (dpi) printing in September
1992 with the announcement of its Unity 1200xl, a plain paper
typesetter that can print pages up to 11 by 17 inches. The Unity
1200xl was designed to work with Apple Computer's Macintosh and IBM-
compatible personal computers.

In mid-1992 Lasermaster introduced its Unity 1000, a multi-platform
plain paper typesetter for Macintosh, IBM-compatible, mini, and
mainframe computers that connects to the host computer through a
LocalTalk, Centronics, or serial interface. The unit includes an
internal hard disk with 135 Type 1 typefaces installed.

(Jim Mallory/19930527/Press contact: Michael Dreis, Lasermaster,
612-941-8687; Reader contact: Lasermaster Technologies, 612-941-8687)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00006)

 ****Comdex: DEC Unveils Alpha At Long Last 05/27/93
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1993 MAY 27 (NB) - After months of
extensive previews -- and broad hints on product pricing and
positioning -- DEC finally announced here Tuesday details of its
plan to take the PC world by storm with its new range of powerful
personal computers based around the company's high-performance Alpha
64-bit processor.

Pricing on the new range -- known as the DECpc AXP 150 -- starts at
$6795 for a "base" level machine that includes Windows NT 3.1, 16
megabytes (MB) of RAM, a 14-inch SVGA color display, a 245 MB SCSI
hard disk, the Alpha AXP processor running at 150 megahertz (MHz) --
as well as the usual collection of serial, mouse, parallel and
keyboard interfaces.

While this price is a little more expensive than some analysts had
predicted, the machine looks to be far more compatible with PC
standards than you would expect from a non-Intel platform. It comes,
for example, with a six-slot, extended industry standard
architecture (EISA) bus and a 3.5 inch floppy disk drive -- so that
you might not even know there was an Alpha processor in the machine
until after you switched it on.

The bad news is that DEC will not start shipping this machine until
a final, shrink-wrapped version of Windows NT is ready for the Alpha
platform -- something that the industry should not expect until at
least the end of August.

In the meantime, those really keen to get started using a Alpha
system with NT can buy the developer's configuration of the DECpc
AXP 150, which includes everything offered in the base level system,
but adds an extra 16 Mb of memory, almost 200 Mb of hard disk space,
a CD-ROM drive, a 16-inch (rather than 14-inch) display, an Ethernet
adaptor card and a copy of Windows NT Beta 2.0. This system is
available immediately, sells for $9,995 and includes an automatic
upgrade to the production version of Windows NT for Alpha when it is
ready.

(Geof Wheelwright/19930527/press contact: Jamie Pearson, Digital
Equipment Corporation, 508-493-2149)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00007)

Comdex: Pressures In The Comdex Press Room 05/27/93
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1993 MAY 27 (NB) - The most riveting
stories at Comdex Spring '93 and Windows World weren't at the
keynote speeches or amongst the gleaming gadgets on the spotlighted
stages of the exhibitors.

The real stories of human triumph over adversity tool place in the
press room -- where hundreds over journalists the world over fought
a four day battle with the computers, telephones, modems, printers
and applications to send their messages of peace and goodwill around
the globe.

We know. We were there -- and it wasn't a pretty sight. There were
the Italian scribes who battled for hours to get a dial tone from the
overheated downtown Atlanta telephone circuits -- made more difficult
by the fact that there were no instructions on international
dialling, not even in English (let alone Italian) -- and the dozens
of hacks from all over that had trouble with the supplied PCs.

While there were dozens of well-meaning representatives from the two
corporate sponsors of the press facilities -- IBM and WordPerfect --
they could offer little help on telephone problems and even found
themselves stymied quite often when PC pecadillos emerged.

One of the problems seemed to stem from the fact that all of the
systems (with the lone exception of two Macs) were IBM PS/2s running
IBM OS/2 2.1 and WordPerfect. Most of the journalists, however,
seemed to prefer running Windows 3.1 and Microsoft Word for Windows.

It was embarrassing to see the WordPerfect and IBM people hopefully
glancing towards the busy and frustrated scribes - expecting them to
be blissfully enjoying WordPerfect and OS/2 2.1 - only to find them
using Word for Windows in Windows 3.1 emulation mode under OS/2.
Inevitably, this led to problems where OS/2 2.1 misbehaved running
Word for Windows - and WordPerfect people had to help journalists
out of a jam.

One PS/2 machine this writer was working on actually locked up
completely and ended needing major internal surgery before it came
back to life several hours later.

So, the next time you hear tales of computer journalists enjoying
endless hours of shmoozing, drinking and being pampered by
suppliers, spare a thought for the denizens of the press room. It
was a tough job -- but somebody had to do it.....

(Geof Wheelwright/19930527)


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

Comdex: Alpha's Unusual Features 05/27/93
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A. 1993 MAY 27 (NB) -- Digital Equipment
Corporation's DECpc AXP/150, a personal computer using the company's
64-bit Alpha AXP microprocessor, and shipping to developers with a
beta version of Windows NT as its operating system, is an
interesting machine, owing to its unusual features.

The Alpha AXP/150 is unusual in three particulars. The first is its
microprocessor, a 64-bit Alpha AXP running at a screaming 150
megahertz (MHz).

This is more than double the 66MHz top speed of competing
microprocessors. The Alpha chip is not Intel-compatible. The second
unusual aspect is the clock speed. The system bus runs at full
speed, 150MHz. In fact, the system clock is 300MHz, which is cut in
half to provide timing for the microprocessor and system bus. The
fast bus speed should provide very fast access to memory. Other
peripherals will be accessed through extended industry standard
architecture (EISA) slots at 33MHz.

The third major differentiator is the operating system. The AXP/150
ships with a beta version of Windows NT. It cannot run Windows or
DOS directly, though 16-bit DOS and Windows applications run under
NT through an emulator. The only 32-bit applications that will run
are NT applications that have been recompiled specifically for Alpha.

With these major exceptions, the AXP/150 is a regular high-end tower
PC, greatly resembling Intel-based PCs sold by DEC. It can support
16 to 128 megabytes (MB) of RAM, sports 512K of secondary cache, has
a built-in SCSI controller, and can support a hard drive up to 1G in
size. Compaq QVision SVGA graphics are standard, and four open EISA
slots and three unused storage bays are available.

Two serial ports, one parallel port, a keyboard, and a mouse are
included. A fully-configured developer version of the Alpha AXP
running a beta version of Windows NT as its operating system is
available immediately for $9,995.

Purchasers will receive a free upgrade to the shipping version of NT
when it becomes available. A non-developer configuration will ship
with the upcoming release of Windows NT 3.1. This version will
include 16M of RAM, a 14" SVGA color monitor, and a 245M SCSI disk
drive, and the operating system. This version will cost $6,795 from
DEC Direct.

(Bud Smith/19930527/Press Contact: DEC - Tel: [phone])


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

Epson Announces PC Tuned For Nextstep 05/27/93
TORRANCE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 MAY 27 (NB) -- Hard on the heels
of the official announcement of the Nextstep operating system for
Intel-based personal computers, Epson has announced the availability
of the Progression NX. The company says that the NX is the first in
a line of PCs optimized to run Nextstep.

Nextstep is the operating system developed by Apple Computer co-
founder Steve Jobs at his new company Next for the futuristic,
black, cube workstation computer, also called Next.

However, five months ago Next announced it would stop producing the
Next computer and focus entirely on being a software company, moving
the Nextstep operating system to the Intel personal computer (PC)
platform. The resulting operating system is the Nextstep 486 and
Next says it already has commitments for 25,000 copies of the new
operating system. Next says the Nextstep operating system will run
Windows and DOS applications as well.

The Progression NX offers an Intel 486DX2/66 processor with
support for future Intel Overdrive processors, including the
new Pentium-class. It comes with 36 megabytes (MB) of random
access memory (RAM) standard, expandable to 68 MB on the
motherboard board via single in-line memory modules (SIMMs) and
offers Epson's proprietary memory architecture, Virtualcache.

To meet the special video needs of the Nextstep operating
system, the Progression NX has 2 MB of video RAM standard, with
random access memory digital-to- analog conversion (RAMDAC)
support for 1120 by 832 resolution.

To accommodate the sizeable portion of disk space the Nextstep
operating system and its applications consume, the Progression
NX comes standard with a 525 MB small computer systems
interface (SCSI) hard disk drive, six industry standard
architecture (ISA) slots, five drive bays, a multimedia sound
card, and a Ethernet local area network (LAN) adapter.

Epson is also planning the Epson NX, a sister machine to the
Progression NX, but with the Nextstep operating system pre-
loaded. The Progression NX is aimed at independent software
vendors (ISVs) and power users while the Epson NX is aimed at
the end user, Epson representatives said.

Planned for release this summer, the Epson NX will offer a 170
MB integrated drive electronics (IDE) hard disk drive and 20 MB
of RAM expandable to 68 MB, four ISA slots, and three drive
bays. It will also come standard with 2 MB of video RAM with
RAMDAC support for 1120 by 832 display resolution.

The Progression NX is currently available to Nextstep beta
sites and Next-authorized independent software vendors for
$5,349. The Epson NX will have an estimated selling price of
less than $3,700, company representatives said.

Epson also announced the Progression 4 series aimed at the
Microsoft Windows user market. The Progression 4 PCs feature
CHIPS & Technologies' Wingine local bus graphics and the
Epson's proprietary memory architecture designed to offer
faster Windows performance. Suggested retail prices for the
Progression 4 line start at $1,339.

(Linda Rohrbough/19930527/Press Contact: Kathleen Buczko,
Manning, Selvage & Lee for Epson, tel [phone], fax 818-
509-1972)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BOS)(00010)

Applix Establishes German Subsidiary, Third In Europe 05/27/93
WESTBORO, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1993 MAY 27 (NB) -- Applix, a major
developer of client/server applications and tools, has opened Applix
GmbH in Munich, Germany, its third subsidiary in the European
market. Plans call for Applix GmbH to serve Germany, Austria and
Switzerland. The company's previously established subsidiaries are
Applix (UK) Limited and Applix France.

Michael Scheib has been named managing director of the new German
operations. According to the company, he has 15 years experience
heading up overseas offices for US companies.

In his most recent position of managing director for Parametric
Technology's German subsidiary, Scheib formed a sales and support
organization that resulted in seven sales offices in Germany and
one sales office in Switzerland. Before joining Parametric, he
managed the largest branch office of CalComp in Germany.

"Given Germany's large installed base of workstations and servers,
and Applix's success with our subsidiaries in the UK and France,
Germany is a strong marketplace and natural extension for us,"
commented Richard J. Davis, the company's executive vice president.

According to Davis, over the past year, demand has skyrocketed in
Germany and surrounding companies for Aster*X, the company's suite
of client/server applications and tools. "I'm confident that Aster*X
will be on the majority of workstations in Germany, Austria and
Switzerland in no time at all," he said.

Available in German as well as in English, French and Italian,
Aster*X is currently sold in more than 20 countries. The software is
designed to let users access, edit and exchange information across
multi-vendor networks of Unix workstations, IBM-compatible PCs, and
Macs.

Aster*X features a macro scripting language called the Extension
Language Facility (ELF) that allows developers to create front-
ends, build applications from scratch, automate tasks, and integrate
Aster*X into external data sources. The package also incorporates a
series of applications, including Words, Graphics and Macros, and
optional Spreadsheets, Mail and Filters.

The software operates on Sun Sparcstations under Solaris, Digital
RISC Ultrix supporting Alpha and OSF/1, the HP 9000 Series, IBM
RS/6000, Silicon Graphics Iris, SCO Unix, Unixware, and most other
Unix workstations.

Aside from the three European subsidiaries, Applix sales channels
include a direct US salesforce and domestic and international
resellers and distributors.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19930527/Press contacts: Amy Weinstein, Applix,
tel [phone], ext 388; Mary Campbell, Rourke & Company for
Applix, tel [phone], ext 304)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00011)

US West Renews Random Access PC Supplier Contract 05/27/93
DENVER, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1993 MAY 27 (NB) -- Random Access has
announced that its contract to supply US West with microcomputers
and peripherals has been renewed for another five years.

Random Access has provided similar services to US West since 985,
but a Random Access spokesperson said the new contract now makes
Random Access the sole microcomputer product and services provider
for US West, its largest corporate customer.

The company says that the contract calls for US West to buy
microcomputers, peripherals, software, networking products,
training, service and support. Random Access will also providing
outsourcing services, including technical support at satellite
offices near specified US West locations. Random Access CEO Bruce
Milliken says expansion of the company's regional office network
during the past 12 months

As Random access spokesperson told Newsbytes US West did about $40
million in business with US West last year. US West Communications
provides service to about 12 million customers in 14 western states.

Random Access was traded publicly on the NASDAQ exchange for the
first time today. By mid-morning 140,000 shares had traded with the
stock up 3/16 from its opening price of 3-1/8.

(Jim Mallory/19930527/Press contact: Bruce Milliken, Random Access,
303-745-600; Reader contact: Random Access, 303-745-9600)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SYD)(00012)

Failed Australian Company Directors Sued By Receiver 05/27/93
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1993 MAY 27 (NB) -- The Australian edition of PC
Week has reported on one of the largest Australian computer industry
stories of recent times. It claims that two directors of HiSoft, the
failed dealership, are being sued by the company's receiver for
recovery of certain payments and transfers made in the twilight days
of the company.

HiSoft was an IBM dealer servicing high-end corporate customers but
the receiver was called in last October after IBM moved to reclaim
an alleged debt of around $14M.

The receivers' action is based on claims that the directors made
some "payments and conferring of benefits that were disadvantageous
to the company." These include: writing final pay checks for two
directors totalling more than $1M; buying $118,000 in art works with
company funds, but allegedly for the use of former managing director
Howard Merry; eight vehicles were transferred to employee ownership
at no cost to them.

The receiver's writ alleges that "At all times between 1 August and
15 October 1992 HiSoft was insolvent or at risk of shortly becoming
insolvent" and that it had "a deficiency in assets of in excess of
$29M at this time. The receiver claims that, because of this. the
actions were either negligent or dishonest.

The action is in progress at the moment.

(Paul Zucker/19930527)


(NEWS)(IBM)(DEN)(00013)

GeoWorks Uses Datalight's ROM-based DOS 05/27/93
ARLINGTON, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1993 MAY 27 (NB) -- Datalight has
contracted with GeoWorks to bundle its ROM-DOS 5 as the disk
operating system for its GEOS system software.

GEOS is a realtime, multithreaded, multitasking, graphical operating
environment. ROM-DOS will reside in the background behind GEOS on a
number of products including some hand-held, pen-based products.

Datalight marketing VP Tim Gillman said that ROM-DOS was designed
specifically for embedded systems developers. "It also seems to be
right for PDAs (personal digital assistants, a new crop of products
several major computer manufacturers are developing)," he said. The
product, with a 38 kilobyte (K) kernel and a 25K command processor,
fits into a 64K ROM.

Datalight first introduced its ROMable DOS for the industrial
embedded computer market four years ago. Gillman says he has no
illusions about breaking Microsoft's lock on the DOS market for
desktop computers, but sees Datalight's product as a low cost, highly
compact, MS-DOS compatible operating system for DOS compatibility
outside that market. The GEOS deal is Datalight's first contract in
the consumer computing industry.

Datalight offers some statistics about ROMable DOS. The company says
it will boot from ROM, a floppy disk, a hard drive, or flash memory,
and provides boot diagnostics. Free technical support is provided
by Datalight engineers, and the software supports configuration
files. OEM pricing ranges from $6 per object copy in quantities of
5,000 to $25 each for single copies.

The company also offers additional utilities on request. "They tend
to be the utilities Microsoft and Digital Research added," he said.

One of those additional utilities is the capability to access a disk
on another machine, such as a desktop, from a machine using the
embedded DOS product."It's similar to Traveling Software's Laplink,
but more compact as not as fully functional," he added.

Gillman told Newsbytes that Datalight is currently offering a
promotional deal that offers potential customers a 90 day no-cost
evaluation period in place of the original 30 day trial period.

The company may also add data compression, and says that from June 1
through August 15, buyers of the $495 ROM-DOS BIOS software
developers kit will get 40 object licenses instead of the usual 20
licenses. The company was incorporated in 1983 and shipped its first
DOS product in 1989.

(Jim Mallory/19930527/Press contact: Tim Gillman, Datalight,
206-435-8086; Reader contact: Datalight, 206-435-8036, fax
206-435-0253)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00014)

Comdex: Positioning The Alpha 05/27/93
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1993 MAY 27 (NB) -- Digital Equipment
Corporation is positioning its new Alpha AXP/150 as a faster
alternative to Intel-based PCs. "It IS a PC-Just Faster," claims the
company's marketing materials.

The AXP/150 is credible for server and traditional workstation
applications. But is it really an Intel alternative, now or in the
near future, even for power users? Well, no. The first limitation of
the Alpha PC is its operating system. Windows NT will not be
available in final form for at least 60 days, according to
Microsoft.

When it is available, it will take months for a wide range of
applications to become available for it. Even slower to appear may
be NT-specific device drivers for a wide range of hardware. But
having NT-capable applications and NT-specific drivers will not be
enough.

These programs must be recompiled for the Alpha version of NT and
sold as separate or combined products. Digital is making strong
efforts in this direction, but Microsoft is the only well-known
vendor of end user applications to commit to making a range of
applications available.

Even Microsoft has so far declined to give specific dates for Alpha
NT versions of its applications. The only applications that will run
on Alpha today are 16-bit DOS and Windows applications that do not
directly access the hardware.

This excludes many DOS applications and DOS and Windows utility
programs, as well as 32-bit DOS and Windows programs that run on the
Intel 89386 and above. Applications that do run will do so under
emulation, reducing their speed.

Jonathan Roskill, Alpha PC product manager, told Newsbytes that
emulated applications will run at "fast 486" speeds. This will be
very good emulation, if true, but not what users can achieve at
lower cost by buying a Pentium system. The only lure for users will
be the speed advantage that Alpha NT applications have over the same
applications running on NT under Pentium.

Roskill estimated Alpha's speed advantage at 20% or more for
integer-intensive applications such as database queries and over
100% for floating-point-intensive applications, including graphics.
These estimates are supported by SPECmark figures derived by
independent sources for Alpha and Pentium.

Each application ported to NT for Alpha is another opportunity for
Alpha users to enjoy its speed advantage over Pentium. This has to
be traded off against the unavailability of 32-bit Windows
applications that are not ported to Alpha and the speed loss
incurred when running 16-bit DOS and Windows applications.

Until Alpha NT applications appear in sufficient numbers, Alpha is
not a viable alternative for current Intel users. If more than a few
current 16-bit Windows applications are ported to 32-bit Windows,
but not to NT for Alpha, the platform will never be a viable Intel
alternative.

(Bud Smith/19930527/Press Contact: DEC - Tel: [phone])


(NEWS)(IBM)(WAS)(00015)

Telecom Software For Hearing Impaired Debuts 05/25/93
HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1993 MAY 25 (NB) -- Futuresoft Engineering
has announced that it is shipping an enhanced version of it's
DynaComm 3.1 Windows communications program which features special
on-screen visual clues for hearing impaired users.

Although it is obvious visually impaired computer users face
formidable obstacles when it comes to using telecommunications
software, it may not be as obvious to most people that hearing
impaired users will also require special software to make bulletin
board and other services easy to use.

The latest release of DynaComm provides special animated Windows
icons that activate during operation to display the same information
normally provided by audio signals from the user's modem.

Since most feedback for dial tone acquisition and exchange of
protocol settings are signaled by sounds, the lack of this feedback
for hearing impaired users can make telecommunications tasks quite
difficult.

Although external modems do provide signal lights or a combination
of lights and LCD text display to indicate modem status, this is not
true for most internal modems and in any case, the visual indicators
supplement, but do not replace the audio indicators.

Icons supplied by the new FutureSoft communications software
include those which indicate a busy signal, a broken connection,
and other normally audible signals.

These same icons are also highly useful for non hearing impaired
workers who are either situated remotely from the actual modem or
can't hear the signals for other environmental reasons such as
being in a noisy location.

A free copy of the upgrade is available to hearing impaired users
of registered copies of DynaComm 3.1.

(John McCormick/19930527/Press Contact: Dawn Whaley, Alexander
Communications, 404-325-7555, or fax [phone])


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00016)

Compaq Gets 1993-94 GSA Schedule Contract 05/27/93
HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1993 MAY 27 (NB) -- Compaq claims it is the
first major PC manufacturer to be awarded a 1993-94 General Services
Administration (GSA) Schedule contract.

The US Government's General Services Administration awards contracts
to companies in many industries, allowing government agencies to
make purchases from an established price list, rather than having to
obtain bids. The GSA Schedule is intended to speed up government
purchasing.

Compaq says it has also signed Letters of Supply with several
authorized Compaq resellers, which enables the resellers to offer
Compaq products to their government customers through their own GSA
contract. Compaq says that the prices for individual items is a
competitive price negotiated with the government.

The new GSA contract is effective May 20, 1993 and runs through March
31, 1994. Compaq spokesperson Linda Parsons told Newsbytes that all
of Compaq's personal computers and printers are available through
the schedule. Compaq has been a GSA schedule provider since 1985.

(Jim Mallory/19930527/Press contact: Mike Berman, Compaq Computer,
713-374-0484; Reader contact: Compaq Computer Corporation,
800-345-1518)


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

US Telecom Update 05/27/93
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1993 MAY 27 (NB) -- The good times
continue to roll for the nation's phone companies. This is
especially true for AT&T, whose stock recently hit a new high of
over $60 a share.

AT&T's latest move is WorldPartners, an alliance with such firms
as KDD of Japan, Australia's Telestra, and Singapore Telecom to
offer one-stop shopping for large companies with voice and data
networks. The new group will compete closely with BT's Syncordia
unit, which is based in Atlanta, and AT&T said it will invest
$100 million in it.

Other members of the group are Korea Telecom and Unitel
Communications of Canada. The group will be based in New York, and
AT&T is still looking for partners in Europe and Latin America.
During the week, AT&T also announced a $20 million switch contract
with Brunei, and new cellular phones that double as answering
machines.

The improved market mood has led a number of companies to go
public. LCI International, a small long distance company which
won business with a simplified pricing scheme, went public a few
weeks ago and now Metropolitan Fiber, known formally as MFS
Communications Company has completed an offering of 12.65 million
shares at $20 each. LCI has recently extended its simpler charging
plan to the toll-free area with a plan called 800 Service Choice.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19930527/Press Contact: Steve Ingish, MFS
Communications, 708-218-7316; Jim Fette, LCI International, 614-
798-6272)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(ATL)(00018)

Comdex: Cinepak Licensed by Microsoft, Cirrus Logic 05/27/93
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1993 MAY 27 (NB) -- SuperMac Technology
has announced that Microsoft and Cirrus Logic have agreed to license
Cinepak, its video-compression technology. SuperMac claimed the
deals "firmly establish Cinepak as the de facto standard for CD-ROM
video distribution."

Louis J. Doctor, SuperMac's executive vice-president, indicated
rgar Microsoft will integrate the technology in its Video for
Windows architecture, allowing full-length movies to be stored in a
compressed format on a single CD-ROM.

Cirrus Logic will put the technology into its coming graphics
controller chips, bringing low-cost, full-motion video playback to
the current installed base of CD-ROM equipped PCs. The agreement
with Cirrus Logic marks the first time that Cinepak has been
licensed for use at the chip level.

Cinepak is already a part of Apple Computer Inc.'s QuickTime
standard as Apple CompactVideo. Creative Labs has also licensed
the technology, as have Atari and 3DO Company, the latter for its
Interactive Multiplayer multimedia system.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19930527/Press Contact: SuperMac Technology,
Deborah Doyle, 408/541-5372; Cirrus Logic, Joe Fowler, 510/226-
2239; Customer Contact: 800/345-2888x90)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(ATL)(00019)

Comdex: Microsoft Endorses DigiBoard PC IMAC for ISDN 05/27/93
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1993 MAY 27 (NB) -- DigiBoard has
announced it has produced a link with Windows NT for its PC IMAC, a
terminal adapter card. The connection, a joint effort of the two
companies, extends networking with Windows NT over long distances at
high speeds.

Both Microsoft and DigiBoard have endorsed the Integrated Services
Digital Network, or ISDN, service, for for wide-area networking.
ISDN can divide a residential phone into two channels of 64,000
bits/second each, and a signalling channel of 16,000 bits/second
each. Critics have charged the regional Bell companies, which are
responsible for deploying the technology through their switches,
have been dragging their feet. The service is not yet tariffed on a
residential basis in the Atlanta area, for instance.

Still, DigiBoard Telecom Group general manager Ham Mathews said that
ISDN is simply the fastest, most cost-effective dial-up data
connection you can make - bar none.

DigiBoard PC IMAC with Windows NT-based drivers is available
immediately from DigiBoard's network of resellers. The technology
was demonstrated at the company's stand during Spring Comdex.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19930527/Press Contact: Julie Thometz,
DigiBoard, 612-943-0469; customer contact: 800-344-4273)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(ATL)(00020)

Comdex: Next Tries To Take Next Step 05/27/93
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1993 MAY 27 (NB) -- This was a bad week
for Next and its chairman, Steve Jobs. The Wall Street Journal
hammered him in a front-page story, with some sources quoted as
taking pity on the former head of Apple Computer. And his
announcement that the company's NextStep operating system will be
licensed for Intel-based PCs was drowned out during Comdex by the
excitement over IBM's OS/2 2.1 and Microsoft's Windows NT.

NextStep's advantage over all its competitors is that it is an
object-oriented operating system which, according to Jobs, lets
programmers create applications in 20 percent of the time they
now take by linking functions together instead of writing code.

NextStep for Intel processors shipped May 25, as Version 3.1, and
a NextStep Developer kit shipped with it. Jobs said he has
commitments for 25,000 copies of the program "right out of the
gate," but that pales in comparison to the millions of copies
being shipped of NT and OS/2.

In addition to looking for Intel 80486 and Pentium users to use
NextStep for object-oriented programming, Next is also announcing
that Hewlett Packard will offer the technology on its servers and
RISC workstations. The package will be called Object Enterprise,
and provide a complete client-server solution based on object-
oriented technology for the fast moving financial services
industry.

The software is due to be available on the Apollo 9000 series
workstations in mid-year, with Portable Distributed Objects for

servers running HP-UX, HP's version of Unix, available in the fourth
quarter. Next's Netinfo network management software for Series 800
servers under HP-UX will also be available at that time.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19930527/Press Contact: Karen Logdeon, Next
Computer, 415-780-4786)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(ATL)(00021)

Comdex: NEC Releases Image PCI-Pentium PC 05/27/93
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1993 MAY 27 (NB) -- The speed with
which technology changes is well-illustrated by NEC's
announcement of the Image P60 at Comdex this week.

The P60 is based on Intel's Pentium chip, running at 60 Megahertz
(MHz). It can hold up to 192 megabytes (MB) of memory using SIMM
slots, and features support for the new PCI local bus specification.
The motherboard is also smaller than boards delivered just a few
years ago with much less power. The computer also runs multiple
operating environments, including Windows NT, OS/2 and NextStep.

There is a PCI Local Bus graphics subsystem with 2 full MB of Video
RAM, and the Pentium's burst mode is supported with a second-level
cache architecture with 256,000 bits of write-back cache so that
data can move through the 64-bit architecture without the delays
found when it has to come in through a hard drive. The P60 also has
a Fast SCSI peripheral interface which can handle up to seven
additional peripherals, and there's also integrated audio.

In other Comdex news from NEC, which dominates Japan's PC market
with its 9801 series, the company announced a RISC PC using a
version of the MIPS chip architecture made by NEC as the VR4000
family of microprocessors.

The RISC PC was developed in conjunction with Microsoft to enhance
Windows NT performance with such features as multi-tasking and
multi-threaded input and output functions. The base model will cost
under $4,000 when it comes out by September, once NT itself comes
out, and will have 16MB of memory, expandable to 128MB on the
motherboard, an internal CD-ROM drive, and an integrated Ethernet
connector.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19930527/Press Contact: Stephanie Allman, for
NEC, 508-264-8835)


(EDITORIAL)(GENERAL)(ATL)(00022)

Comdex: Spring Comdex '93; A Fond Look Back 05/27/93
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, 1993 MAY 27 (NB) -- Happy days are here again? For
proof, one only had to look around at this year's Spring
Comdex show.

A record turn-out of about 90,000 people. Miles of aisles
reminiscent of a fall show. Too many announcements to really count.
Lots of parties with fine food and drink, and the best giveaways in
many years, like hats from Lotus, PC bags from Microsoft,
WordPerfect and Doublecase, even baseballs from IBM. Coming home
from the show one night, laden with goodies, my 5-year old daughter,
Robin, exclaimed with glee "It's a birthday party!"

The best news of all came from IBM, which finally seems to have
"gotten it," both its problems and their possible solution. The
former Big Blue has a new strategy, which makes sense, based on
multimedia, the PowerPC chip, and object-based technology. All of
its people were friendly, all its spokesmen helpful, most of its
executives accessible. And it delivered a version of its OS/2
operating system which worked and worked well.

On the other side, the pressure may be getting to the new "Big
Green," Microsoft. Everyone agreed chairman Bill Gates, alias
Gigadollar Bill, was off his game in his Windows World keynote.

Despite its awards, Windows NT isn't ready, and the version shown
at Comdex isn't stable enough to let anyone use. There was
speculation that Gates himself may be entering a mid-life crisis,
brought on by his impending marriage, possible fatherhood down
the road, and the fact that, at 38, he's gone farther than any
business tycoon before him, in any industry, ever went.

With a net worth of $7 billion, growing all the time, you have to
wonder whether Gates is still hungry, and if so, what for? He's the
800-pound Gorilla of this industry, and if he has an average
lifespan coming he's just halfway through it. He's being called a
genius, and he is very smart, but the truth is he's worked hard.
Damned hard. Maybe it's time he learned to be happy.

There was lots of other important news at this show. A new bus
technology, called the PCI Local Bus, endorsed by every major
vendor from IBM to Compaq to Apple. Next returning to the PC wars
with an object-oriented architecture that works. Pentium chips
putting mainframe power on desktops. Operating systems which work
on both PCs and RISC workstations. Digital's Alpha chip, the
fastest desktop machine yet. And despite all these headlines some
major vendors, like Apple and Compaq, weren't here. Amazing.

Best of all, perhaps, is that the PC industry is finally
fulfilling its promise. The best speech of the week was that of
Lotus' Jim Manzi, who noted that service sector productivity rose
3 percent last year, a rise Fed chairman Alan Greenspan
attributes, in part, to PC technology.

Manzi described how his Lotus Notes software is being used by major
companies to connect every desktop, even those in the field,
regardless of operating system, and showed how new Notes technology
will let workers share compound documents -- part words, part
numbers, part graphics -- in a seamless database.

All in all, this is a smarter and wiser boom for the PC industry.
Gone is the wide-eyed innocence of the first boom, in the early
80s. Gone are the arguments over architectures which marked the
last boom, in the late 80s. It's been replaced by maturity, by
real value, by results that show up on buyers' bottom lines.

This is obviously a problem for US society and business. By
using PCs to flatten the organization chart, millions of mid-
level managements have been thrown into the street. The latest
economic recovery, now well into its second year by most
accounts, is mostly job-less.

The new challenge for the PC industry, and for society, is to turn
that power that has thrown people into the street into something
which can really empower them, which can train them in new skills
people can use to feed their families.

And that's an exciting future. I can't wait for it.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19930527)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(ATL)(00023)

Comdex: A Visit With IBM's Peter Blakeney 05/27/93
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1993 MAY 27 (NB) -- During the Spring
Comdex show, IBM invited reporters up to its offices in north
Atlanta for a one-on-one with multimedia executive Peter Blakeney.
Limousines were dispatched to whisk us from the crowds at the World
Congress Center to a set of conference rooms on the ninth floor of
an IBM complex on Northside Parkway.

The offices had something of the atmosphere of a political office
after a long campaign. And it has been a tough go. As we entered,
there were reports that another 70,000 of IBM's remaining 300,000
employees may be let go in time. Management stands by statements
that only 25,000 will go this year.

Still, the IBM'ers we met were positively giddy, talking about
the long hours spent preparing the company's Spring Comdex
offerings. These include new Multimedia ValuePoint computers,
dubbed the MVP line, along with a raft of new Ultimedia software,
much of it under Microsoft Windows, and OS/2 2.1, which drew rave
reviews from Newsbytes and some other analysts.

For the first time in memory, visitors remarked at how helpful,
aggressive, even feisty IBM'ers were, with Jim Cannavino delivering
a humorous keynote in a red sport-shirt and employees handing out
"Nice Try" t-shirts at Microsoft chairman Bill Gates' keynote.

If anyone in Atlanta deserves credit for the new mood, the new
performance, and the new chance for IBM, however, it's Peter
Blakeney. We sat down with him after touring some IBM demos
around the conference room, showing IBM mainframes used to
deliver multimedia directions on procedures at the company's
Poughkeepsie factory, a kiosk used to buy Minnesota Twins'
tickets, and new voice-activated software under Windows running
on a ValuePoint machine.

Finally, Blakeney ushered us into a conference room. He was
dressed in a black-and-white shirt, and he looked tired. He
talked about plans to visit Spain this summer. And he talked
frankly about the fact that, while Spring Comdex may have given
IBM a chance to come back, it's up to all IBM'ers to deliver on
the promises of the new products, to think like customers again.

That means getting rid of the "not invented here" syndrome.
"Our Multimedia ValuePoints don't even have OS/2 on them," he
pointed out. "We did have them on the UltiMedia 57s, but the
ValuePoints have it stripped out. Why burden the system with it?"

IBM's whole corporate strategy is now geared around multimedia,
delivered throughout the enterprise by mainframes, mid-range
systems, RISC workstations, and PCs through networks. I asked
how far, and how fast, this change is coming.

"The most significant barrier we've crossed has been the blurring of
distinctions between discrete multimedia and the PC world," he said.
"When you have software-compressed video, every PC turns into a
Multimedia PC." And the boom has just started. "Last fall we had an
enormous surge of CD-ROM and sound cards sales -- five million at
the end of last year.

"And it hasn't abated. We had compression algorithms this time
last spring, but they were just germinating. Now they're maturing
rapidly, things like Indio Video, Crunch, Video for Windows,
Ultimotion. That transforms the nature of the PC by definition.

All of a sudden you've got Multimedia PCs everywhere. This goes
back to last fall, when the knee of the growth curve was hit.
Since then there has been an explosion of CD-ROM titles, a
headlong rush of content owners to convert to the mew medium,
everyone from textbook publishers like R.R. Donnelley to Dow Jones
to Time Warner. Everyone's trying to build-in multimedia as an
outlet for their content.

"But we're still at a stage of fluid development. It will be a
year or two before the standards settle down. Today there's a lot
of hype that's not warranted. In most cases it doesn't matter --
the CD-ROMs are playback devices anyhow. All the algorithms will
play back on the same platform."

Since I cover the broadcast industry for a trade magazine called
Electronic Media, I asked about the problems those businesses may
have converting to an all-digital format. "Within 18 months
you'll have a Unix environment in the price range of Intel
processors that's a very powerful system. You can get a Unix-
based RS6000 for $5-6,000 today." But, except for TF-1 in France,
which committed to an all-digital format last year based on DVI,
most stations will hold back for now.

"Part of the issue is broadcast quality. We're doing high end film
processing with Unix boxes, and next summer we'll have some pieces
on that." When Power Visualization systems are added to the mix, and
networked with other machines, probably in 1995, then broadcasters
may start rushing toward digital production.

But, "one of the drivers is going to be the Digital Betacam," from
Sony. "If they can ship them as fast as orders come in, and the
first year is sold out, as those go into the production facilities
it will drive the computer systems in the back room. I think you'll
still have a lot of analog to the end of the decade. That's an
economic issue. The margins are too thin" for broadcast companies
"to swap that stuff out."

(Dana Blankenhorn/19930527)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(WAS)(00024)

Roundup: Stories Carried By Other Media This Week 05/27/93
WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A., 1993 MAY 27 (NB) -- Roundup is a brief
look at some computer stories carried in other publications
received here this past week.

Computer Reseller News dated May 24 contains a massive survey of
industry executive pay which shows Charles Wang (Computer
Associates) at the top with $2.7 million in salary for 1992.
AMD's Sanders made just a little less, while Apple's John Sculley
pulled down $1.6 million and Andrew Grove got $1.35 M, just a
shade more than the ousted John Akers at IBM.

Bill Gates didn't even make the top 150 executives when it came to
salary, but don't pass the hat just yet because he did top the
"stock holdings" list with a comfortable $6.88 B (that's BILLION)
after selling $400 million worth of MS stock in the past two years,
and his nearest competitor was Microsoft's Paul Allen with just
under half that much stock.

Computerworld for the week of the 24th says that Microsoft's
entire client/server battle plan rests on NT's success, a point
emphasized by the fact that more than half the 130 Windows NT
product introductions at Windows World were application
development tools, with another 25 percent being network and
system utilities.

The same issue says, "NT: Not quite ready for prime time" - despite
its 80,000 beta testers, the operating system, which needs 12-16
megabytes of memory at a minimum, may not really ship until "as late
as September."

June 13's PC Magazine takes a close, in-depth look at Windows NT
and compares it with competitors OS/2, Unixware, and Nextstep as
well as Microsoft's other operating systems. Microsoft has
apparently changed its mind and is marketing NT not as a
replacement for Windows 3.1 but as a high-end product for
servers.

Informationweek for May 24 puts IBM on the cover with a look at
how OS/2 2.1 compares to Windows NT and how large customers view
Big Blue's new CEO, Lou Gerstner. The consensus seems to be that
OS/2 is too little, too late, and too proprietary, while the
executives like Gerstner's new openness along with IBM's new
lower prices on mainframe software.

(John McCormick/19930527)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(ATL)(00025)

Comdex: Doublecase Announces Retail Distribution 05/27/93
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1993 MAY 27 (NB) -- Doublecase was
trying to get on the right side of the media by offering its
hard-side cases for notebook computers, free, to the press.

Newsbytes will review it when we get it, but the thing looks good.
It's a heavy suitcase, lined in foam, and a cut-out in the foam
holds the computer, with enough headroom to flip-up the screen for
work while the thing is still in the case.

The cases have been available mail-order for 12 months, at retail
prices of $60 to $200, depending on the style. One model, the NB-
1000S, is compact and comes with a shoulder strap. The NB-3000
has a compartment deep enough to firmly hold all accessories.

The NB-3400 accepts both DOS and Macintosh notebooks. The NB-3600
and NB-4600 are even bigger. There's also a line of soft-side
saddlebags with lots of compartments for papers and manuals, disks
and spare batteries. If you're going on a short trip without your
PC, they can double as overnight luggage.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19930527/Press Contact: Cameron Yost,
Doublecase, 719-531-5535; FAX: [phone]; Customer ContacT:
800-475-0707)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00026)

 ****Comdex: Zeos Subsidiary Intros IDE-To-PCI Interface Chip 05/27/93
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1993 MAY 27 (NB) -- Attendees at the annual
Spring Comdex trade show in Atlanta this week were introduced to a
new interface chip designed to connect IDE disk drives and other
input/output devices to the new Intel-backed Peripheral Component
Interconnect (PCI) local bus standard.

The chip was developed by PCTech, a Lake City, Minnesota-based
subsidiary of Zeos International. Designated the RZ1000, the chip is
fully PCI 2.0 compliant and is designed to reduce the cost and
enhance performance of PC systems that use the new PCI standard. The
company says it does this by allowing use of low-cost IDE hard
drives while achieving a level of performance not possible with
industry standard architecture (ISA)-based IDE interfaces.

PCTech claims that the RZ1000 integrates several separate electronic
components into a single integrated chip to achieve the PCI to IDE
interface that's fully compatible with existing IDE software and
commands. Up to four IDE devices can be supported and no special
software or drivers are required. RZ1000 features include an IDEa
port, which allows other standard ISA-type peripheral devices such
as SCSI controllers, serial or parallel ports, and data compression
circuits to be moved to the PCI local bus/CPU interface.

The PCI local bus interface was first introduced in June of 1992. PCI
is an open architecture standard designed to eliminate PC performance
bottlenecks by providing a high performance, processor independent
data path between the CPU and peripheral devices. PCTech says it's
interested in licensing the chip, and a patent is pending.

(Jim Mallory/19930527/Press contact: Rick Apple, Zeos International,
612-623-9614; Reader contact: PCTech, 612-345-4555)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(ATL)(00027)

Comdex: Analog Devices Claims DSP Support 05/27/93
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A.,1993 May 27 (NB) -- The big party May 26
is a demo madhouse at the Omni Hotel sponsored by Analog Devices,
which makes digital signal processing chips. There NEC, Intel,
Echo Speech, Cardinal, Archer, Dragon, Voyetra, Centigram, Digicom,
Lernout & Hauspie and Analog Devices together will show-off their
products made using Analog's Personal Sound Architecture, or PSA
technology.

"Last Comdex Spring, the notion of an open design family of
chipsets and reference guides for PC audio processing was just
another good idea being floated to the PC industry," said John
Croteau, manager of strategy and planning for the company's chip
division. "In less than one year, PC sound buyers can now see
everything from complete PC systems for business audio, add-in PC
sound systems and cards, PC motherboards with sound enhancements,
and even notebooks and handheld PCs -- all based on PSA audio
processing."

The idea is that in addition to selling chipsets, Analog also
supplies pre-engineered reference designs to PC OEMs and add-in
card suppliers. This makes turning the chips into products easy.
American Megatrends is adding the technology to its desktop
motherboards.

Echo Speech, which is Analog's lead development partner on the
chipsets, will have its own 16-bit stereo Echo Personal Sound
System. NEC is adding the PSA-based audio to its Pentium-based Image
PCs for adding voice and sound notes to Windows 3.1 documents.

Lotus Development is also working with Analog, identifying ways
to exploit PSA-based sound product features with Lotus applications.
This could allow things like sound annotation to Lotus Notes.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19930527/Press Contact: John Croteau, Analog
Devices, 617-461-3010; FAX: [phone])


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(ATL)(00028)

Comdex: The Power Publishing Alliance Arrives 05/27/93
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A.,1993 May 27 (NB) -- Adobe Systems, Dell
Computer and SuperMac Technology announced formation of a
consortium called the Power Publishing Alliance, designed to
promote professional color publishing solutions in the Microsoft
Windows environment.

"All the applications are available, as well as the color
publishing hardware required to get the job done," said Jonathan
Lazarus, vice president of strategic systems marketing at
Microsoft.

Dell is making the hardware, known as PPA Workstation and
SuperStation, and said it will be available starting June 22. The
SuperStation combines a Dell i486 EISA-based computer, a SuperMatch
Thunder/24 video card and color monitor, and Adobe Illustrator,
Photoshop, Streamline, Type Manager, TypeAlign, 200 typefaces from
the Adobe type library, and Aldus PageMaker or Quark XPress for page
lay-out.

Plans call for the three companies to join together to evangelize
their solutions with a series of seminars. They have agreed to
invest over a million dollars in market education and promotion over
the next year.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19930527/Press Contact: LaVon Peck, Adobe
Systems, 415-513-8800; Jennifer Powers, Dell Computer, 512-794-
4100; Alexandrea Todd, SuperMac Technology, 415-513-8800)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(ATL)(00029)

Windows World: Virtuoso 2.0 From Altsys Debuts 05/27/93
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A.,1993 May 27 (NB) -- Altsys has announced
Virtuoso 2.0, a complete PostScript language design and production
program for Windows NT. It's the first graphics program to
incorporate PostScript drawing, text creation/editing, page layout
and production capabilities in a single program, and the first to be
offered in the NT environment.

Virtuoso was originally launched for the NextStep, then ported to
Sun Workstations, said president James Van Ehr. New features in
Version 2.0 include an on-screen font panel, which lets users
type in the several letters of a desired typeface line, which is
then brought up automatically. This beats scrolling through a
list.

Virtuoso also allows artists to use text as a graphics, transforming
it like any other element and binding text to arbitrary paths. It
also provides professional typographical control over kerning,
leading, tracking and baseline shift, and there are special effects
created with nine textured and 10 editable customized PostScript
file. Designers can also create their own custom PostScript code.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19930527/Press Contact: Martha Harry, Altsys,
214-680-2060; FAX: [phone])


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(ATL)(00030)

Comdex: CrystalGraphics' Crystal Flying Fonts 05/27/93
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A.,1993 May 27 (NB) -- CrystalGraphics has
announced Crystal Flying Fonts, a $295 software package which lets
users add 3-D logos and title animations to their multimedia
presentations.

The package handles modeling, rendering, animation, textures and
backgrounds, and works with other desktop presentation products
such as Harvard Graphics, Corel Draw 3.0, Tempra Show and
WordPerfect Presentations for Windows.

The company said that, until last year, it provided its products
strictly to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), who sold it
under their own names. The products include Topas, formerly marketed
by AT&T, and drew strong reviews.

Topas, now called Crystal TOPAS Professional, is the company's
flagship, at $4,995, offering broadcast-quality 3D modeling,
including single frame output to professional videotape, field
rendering, rotoscoping from disk or tape, NTSC color correction and
unshaped video.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19930527/Press Contact: Marsha Adams,
CrystalGraphics, 408-496-6175; FAX: [phone])


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(ATL)(00031)

Comdex: Quarterdeck Defends Its Record 05/27/93
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A.,1993 May 27 (NB) -- In all the hoopla
over Windows and OS/2, Quarterdeck Office Systems seems to have
been left behind. The memory management capability on which its
QEMM program is based is now part of DOS 6.0. The multi-tasking
on which its DesqView program is based is a claimed part of
Windows, and the DOS programs which DesqView runs are called
obsolete.

While Quarterdeck had a small booth at this Spring Comdex, it was
also a part of the Silicon Northwest fish-fest party. The Santa
Monica, California-based company became part of Silicon Northwest
when spokesman Charles McHenry moved his offices to Oregon.

Newsbytes asked him about the company's image, and the fall in
its stock price to about $3 per share from a high of $16.

"The market doesn't understand us," he said. "Quarterdeck has $3
million in the bank, it's turning a profit, and it has $50
million in sales." Despite recent lay-offs meant to balance costs
with revenues, the company has remained profitable.

Quarterdeck's bid for the future is DesqView/X, of which Version
1.1 shipped in March. This is a version of DesqView which can run
either on a Local Area Network or an X/Windows workstation, hence
the name.

Quarterdeck views DesqView/X as a "truly interoperable environment,"
with the goal being it can run free hardware users to run the
software programs of their choice, whether they're MS-DOS, Windows,
or Unix programs. If the market finds value in that capability,
McHenry believes, Quarterdeck will do well.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19930527/Press Contact: Quarterdeck Office
Systems, Charles McHenry, 503-772-2382)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(ATL)(00032)

Comdex: Ricoh Demonstrates Ink Jet Fax-Printer 05/27/93
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A.,1993 May 27 (NB) -- Ricoh was busy
demonstrating what it calls the first ink jet fax/printer, the Ricoh
Fax800 at Comdex this week. The unit is scheduled for a September
delivery.

In addition to supporting IBM Proprinter and Epson LQ 510
printer drivers, the Fax800 also acts as a plain-paper fax
machine. An optional parallel interface lets users have online
printer capabilities even while the unit is transmitting or
receiving incoming faxes to memory. The unit also doubles as a
copier.

As a fax machine, the Fax800 offers broadcast capabilities to up
to nine locations, with substitute reception allowing up to 29
incoming pages to be stored in memory if the printer is active or
out of paper or ink. Pages are automatically printed when the
machine is put back online.

Fax forwarding automatically routes inbound faxes to another
location, while keeping a local copy for back-up. Free Polling
allows the unit to call another terminal and poll a message waiting
there, while Secure Polling requires a matching ID code to prevent
messages from being sent to the wrong party.

Documents up to 8.5 inches wide, a standard paper size, are scanned
at 12 seconds per page and transmitted at 10 seconds per page over
regular phone lines.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19930527/Press Contact: Gil O'Brien, for Ricoh,
212-727-2500)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(ATL)(00033)

Comdex: Star Offers Heat Fusion Printer 05/27/93
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A.,1993 May 27 (NB) -- Star Micronics
announced a heat-fusion printer, the SJ-144, which offers laser-
quality output with full color at a price comparable to ink-jet
printers, at a suggested retail price of $599.

The printer runs at up to 382 characters per second with 360 dot
per inch raster graphics resolution. The printer uses plain,
coated or recycled paper as well as labels, card stock, envelopes
and overhead transparencies. The images resist smearing when wet,
or marked by a highlighter.

There are three paper feed paths on the SJ-144. There's a paper
tray, a manual rear feed, and a manual front feed. There are also
three printer emulators included, eight bitmapped fonts and 15
scalable TrueType fonts for Windows 3.1, as well as Star's own
Compressed Data Mode, a Zoom Mode for reducing the size of text
or graphics as much as 50 percent, a two-page printing mode for
handling two pages of data on one page, and a label mode. The
printer will ship from this July onwards.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19930527/Press Contact: Star Micronics America,
Gary L. Bailer, 212-986-6770)


(EDITORIAL)(GENERAL)(ATL)(00034)

 ****Comdex: OS/2 Versus NT; The Inside Story 05/27/93
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A.,1993 May 27 (NB) -- Comdex represented
a choice of vapor or reality. Windows NT is vapor, OS2 2.1 is
real.

And the two combatants were uncommonly feisty, even for IBM and
Microsoft. As people walked into Bill Gates' keynote address,
where NT was formally introduced, IBM people handed out t-shirts
reading Nice Try. Bill replied with jokes about the NT
designation and other interpretations of the initials.

So let's start with the vapor, since NT still won "Byte"
Magazine's award as the best product at the show. Microsoft was
giving only guided tours of Windows NT using a LAN. Any attempt
at varying from the orchestrated tour of Windows NT, in a clearly
marked March 1993 beta version, was quickly squashed. It appears
that Windows NT is still not stable. It could be months, we were
told 60 days, before Windows NT is out for public use.

Windows NT is designed for high-end uses such as networked
company computers or systems requiring intense multi-processing
and multi-tasking systems. It is supposed to be a complete
operating system to compete with Unix and its variations.
Whether it will it be is another question.

As for the Windows NT multi-tasking capability, our tour guides
explained that NT exerts pre-emptive control of the system. This
means that the operating system takes control of the CPU time
allotment and the address and interrupt calls. The applications
are thus controlled largely by the operating system.

Windows for Workgroups, on the other hand, combines MS-DOS and
Windows with connectivity in one package, and uses a technique
called co-operative control. This mean control is shared between the
application and the operating system. In practice, it means that
when a multimedia application is running and a graphics program
comes up, the sound from the first application gets splotchy. Or
when you're online and a database search is started the call may
crash.

Over at the IBM stand, systems with OS/2 2.1 were set-up and
waiting to be used by the casual passer-by. Also, OS/2 2.1 was
placed on all of the computers in the "press work room" so
journalists could use it as needed. OS/2 2.1 has to be awfully
stable for this kind of abuse. After using it for a while I was
impressed. I am seriously considering it as an option for
telecommunicating. It is a pre-emptive operating system as
defined by Microsoft so OS/2 2.1 is in control of what happens
at all times.

DOS, Windows, and OS/2 applications all seem to work well under
OS/2 2.0. The only complaint was that the package did not seem
complete when installed. In other words, there were additional
parts that needed to be purchased in order to make it really
usable. All this has changed with Version 2.1, which comes with
multimedia extensions standard, and more drivers for printers and
other peripherals.

Both Windows NT and OS/2 2.1 have flexible configuration systems
so that you may not have to commit to using it in order to take a
test drive. But be careful with your data before trying this:
Back Up, Back Up, Back Up!!!

Considering that more industry people are calling DOS toast than
are toasting it, it is time to look at the next operating system
while a choice can still be made. Being a DesqView fan, it is sad
to see the day coming when DOS goes the way of CP/M (dates me)
and slide into oblivion. DesqView got its hooks in Unix so all is
not lost for Quarterdeck. But for the rest us, decision time is
rapidly approaching.

One more point. The work station furniture, from Forminco,
available at the IBM test-drive was very impressive. Maybe more
so than either NT or OS/2. If they were just as good as the desks
they were sitting on, we'd be fine.

(tbass HNDYPRSN/19930527/Press Contact: Steve Malkiewicz, IBM,
914-642-5449; Wegener-Edstrom, for Microsoft, 503-245-0905;
Quarterdeck Office Systems, Charles McHenry, 503-772-2382;
Forminco, Brian Levine, 514-444-9488; customer contact: 1-800-3-
IBM-OS2)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00035)

 ****Comdex: Alpha, The Future Awaits 05/27/93
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A. 1993 MAY 27 (NB) -- For now, Digital
Equipment Corporation (Maynard, MA) is positioning its new, Alpha-
based AXP/150 as a product for use by software developers. In an
exclusive interview, Jonathan Roskill, Alpha PC Product Manager for
DEC, told Newsbytes that "we wanted to get a box running NT into
developers' hands as quickly as possible."

A developer's configuration of the AXP/150 includes Windows NT Beta
2.0 software, 32M of RAM, a 16" SVGA color monitor, a 426M SCSI hard
disk, a 600M CD-ROM drive, a 3.5" floppy disk drive, Ethernet,
serial and parallel ports, a keyboard and a mouse. The price for
this configuration is $9995; it is available now.

Although dozens of software developers have demonstrated
applications for Alpha, the only widely known names among them are
Oracle, Sybase, and Microsoft. Microsoft has promised to port "its
major applications" to NT on Alpha, according to DEC, but timing of
the Alpha versions will be decided on a product-by-product basis.

The company is sparing no effort to increase the number of announced
applications and to establish firm dates for those that do announce.
The next landmark in the success or failure of this effort will be
the number of developers who include Alpha support in the plans they
announce up to and just after the the actual shipment of Windows NT.

(Bud Smith/19930527/Press Contact: DEC - Tel: [phone])


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BOS)(00036)

PCMCIA Will Drive PC Card Market To $6.6 Billion By '99 05/27/93
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 MAY 27 (NB) -- The global PC
card market will multiply 20-fold by 1999 to $6.6 billion, and the
percentage of cards that comply with the PCMCIA standard will rise
from less than half today to more than 95% by 1996, says a newly
released survey.

The US will remain the largest market for PC cards throughout the
decade, but growth will be even faster in Europe and other regions
of the world, according to the study, "World PC Card Markets:
PCMCIA Standard Opens the Floodgates."

PCMCIA is, in fact, stimulating consumers to buy PC cards, after
several years in which acceptance was relatively modest, concluded
researchers at Frost & Sullivan/Market Intelligence.

Other factors attributed to the growth spurt include improving
technology, rapidly increasing demand for portable computing,
falling prices, and greater consumer acceptance. Flash cards,
fax/modem, and LAN (local area network) cards were found to be the
products responsible for pacing sales.

The current $300 million PC card market will grow at triple-digit
rates this year and next, with 55 percent compound annual growth
through the end of the 90s, the study projects.

Large and small companies alike are moving into the PC card market,
creating more competition and higher volume production that will
drive prices down dramatically and motivate more purchases, the
researchers theorized.

Further, the start of world-wide economic recovery this year and the
next will spur the growth of the portable computing market, in turn
creating greater demand for small, efficient and ruggedly built
memory and I/O devices.

The Mountain View, CA-based market research firm also predicted
that wireless connectivity for I/O cards will develop rapidly,
fax/modem cards will see faster speeds, and power consumption will
continue to decrease with better battery technology and power
management software.

In addition, flash memory cards will displace RAM, ROM and other
memory cards over the next few years, once technological hurdles
are overcome.

Also according to the researchers, most vendors are now preoccupied
with developing technology and pushing new products into the
market-place. After the market is better established, though,
issues of pricing, customer service, distribution and competition
product features will come closer to the fore.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19930527/Press contact: Amy Arnell, Frost &
Sullivan/Market Intelligence, tel [phone], or fax, 415-961-
5042)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00037)

Nintendo Rejects Sega Video Game Rating Scheme 05/27/93
REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1993 MAY 27 (NB) -- Nintendo of
America rejected the video game rating scheme announced earlier this
week by its competitor Sega, calling the system "a smoke screen for
more violent games."

Nintendo of America is a subsidiary of Nintendo Co Ltd, of Japan,
the biggest manufacturer and marketer of video games. The company
says that the Sega game rating system is a means to justify the
marketing of increasingly violent video games.

Non-players may think of video games as Pacman-like characters
players guide through mazes or gobble up other screen symbols. But
the current crop of games feature video-quality adventures that
resemble the action in many popular movies. Nintendo says it has its
own internal standards. It says it rejected the arcade game "Mortal
Kombat" because it includes lots of violence and some death scenes.

The company says its licensee Acclaim Entertainment is reprogramming
the game to meet Nintendo guidelines. It has been reported that Sega
intends to release an arcade version of "Mortal Kombat" with the
death scenes intact, but Newsbytes was unable to confirm that.

Speaking about Sega's rating system, Nintendo marketing VP Peter Main
says "Sega appears to have invented its new rating system in response
to the growing world-wide outrage over their video game 'Night
Trap',
a game that would never be allowed to appear on any Nintendo format
because of the strict game play standards that we put in place in
1988." "Night Trap" has reportedly been pulled from the shelves of
some retailers because of its portrayal of violence against young
women.

Main says that Nintendo believes the future of the video game
industry rests on adhering to a policy of internal standards and
extensive game evaluation, not on what he called "unenforceable
rating systems." Sega's rating system is similar to that applied to
movies.

Nintendo says its research shows that 70 percent of all video game
software is purchased by players under the age of 15. "At Nintendo,
our highest priority is to produce quality games that are both
exciting to younger players and acceptable to the whole family,"
according to Main.

(Jim Mallory/19930527/Press contact: Perrin Kaplan, Nintendo of
America, 206-861-2509)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(ATL)(00038)

 ****Comdex: PCI Standard Launched 05/27/93
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1993 MAY 27 (NB) -- Forget ISA, EISA, and
the dreaded Micro Channel. The new standard for connecting add-in
boards to your PC is called PCI.

PCI stands for Peripheral Component Interconnect. It also goes by
the name Local Bus. The group was formed by Digital and some
other manufacturers a year ago, aimed at solving the problems
developing with ISA, originally designed for the 8-bit PC. The
PCI Special Interest Group, or SIG, now includes 129 companies.

At a press breakfast during Spring Comdex, an impressive list of
corporate officers came forward to announce their support for
PCI. The specification for PCI Local Bus transfers 32 bits of
data at up to 132 megabytes/second. A transparent 64-bit
extension can double that and offer both forward and backwards
compatibility.

Because it's processor independent, the Local Bus can operate along
with the main chip and memory. PCI can also work on just 3.3 volts,
making it useful for laptop machines. All the setting of DIP
switches and jumpers has also been eliminate -- PCI cards are
configured automatically.

For those who still like the old slots, PCI specifies a "shared
slot" for those boards, and both short and standard length PCI add-
in cards will fit in ISA/EISA or Micro Channel-based systems.

How strong is the Local Bus? While Apple, Compaq and IBM were
fighting over NuBus, EISA and the Micro Channel, all three are
members of the PCI SIG and Apple says it will now support the
standard on its desktop systems.

Apple's appearance with this group is a special surprise. Ross
Ely, the company's product manager for the PowerPC chip, revealed
to us that Apple decided it wasn't going to participate unless it
got a seat on the board, and it was just voted on last week.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19930527/Press Contact: Craig Sutphin, for PCI
SIG, 408-496-0900; FAX: [phone])


(NEWS)(APPLE)(LAX)(00039)

Apple To Build PCI Local Bus Macintoshes 05/25/93
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1993 MAY 25 (NB) -- Apple Computer has
aligned itself with the group of vendors who announced support for
the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) Local Bus standard in
their future systems. The bottom line is Apple's adoption of the PCI
Local Bus will make its computers compatible with the same
peripherals IBM-compatible computers will use.

Originally introduced by Intel, the leader in central processing
units (CPUs) for the IBM-compatible personal computer (PC) market,
the PCI standard is a core architecture, offers data transfer
capability between computer expansion cards, and is aimed at
multimedia.

The PCI Local Bus has been described by the PCI Special Interest
Group (SIG) as a high-performance local bus architecture designed to
eliminate bottlenecks between a computer's processor and its high
band-width peripherals, such as networking, video, and graphics.

Intel has announced PCI as an open standard and has offered free PCI
licenses to the PC manufacturing market in order to promote it. One
PC vendor said Intel didn't want PCI to become another Microchannel.
Microchannel is IBM's architecture standard for the PC bus which
never gained wide acceptance.

The purpose of the PCI SIG is to work on the specification. Intel is
a permanent member of the steering committee of that group, but 150
other PC companies are involved, including IBM. Apple's Vice
President of its Desktop Products Group, Eric Harslem, said the
companies involved in the PCI SIG are interested in leveraging off
of each other's research and development investments.

"Apple's participation in the PCI Steering Committee will ensure
that PCI will become the de facto industry standard local bus," said
Mike Bailey, PCI Steering Committee chairperson. "With Apple's
support of PCI, we are gaining momentum for a unified bus strategy
that connects the PC industry by supporting different CPUs,
architectures, and platforms."

Apple's adoption of the open PCI standard will mean more choices at
a lower cost to future Macintosh users. The choice of cards for
Apple's current Nubus system architecture has been limited by the
fact that manufacturers have been forced to develop a separate
product for the Nubus, Harslem said.

The adoption of PCI by Apple should mean that users can buy any card
off the shelf and it will work in a Macintosh, an IBM compatible
system, and perhaps even a workstation -- if workstation
manufacturers also adopt the PCI standard, according to Harslem.

"When the XT bus was introduced in 1986, Apple chose not adopt
the standard because we felt it was too limiting," Harslem
said. "However, the adoption of PCI is a good move for Apple."

Plans are to adopt the PCI architecture in second generation
PowerPC-based Macintosh computers. Apple this month showed the
first prototype of the PowerPC-based Macintosh, a CPU it
announced with IBM and Motorola in October of 1991. "Power" is
an acronym based on IBM's Performance Optimization with
Enhanced RISC (reduced instruction set computing) technology.

Harslem said that, just like the PC community's investment in its
extended industry standard architecture (EISA) will mean a slow
move to PCI as a standard, Apple has a large investment in the
Nubus for the PowerPC-based Macintosh. Notwithstanding, users
can expect to see the first PCI Local Bus Macintosh PowerPCs in
the first half of 1994, Harslem added.

(Linda Rohrbough/19930527/Press Contact: Stacy Williams, Apple,
tel [phone], fax [phone])


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00040)

 ****Intel Says It Is Being Underestimated By Analysts 05/27/93
SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 MAY 27 (NB) -- The stocks
of some of the biggest players in the personal computer industry
were some of the most active in over-the-counter trading yesterday.
While Intel's stock made some of the largest gains, the company
claims it is being underestimated.

Each of the heavily traded companies, Novell, Intel, Dell, Sun,
Microsoft, Lotus, and Oracle, had products on display at one of
the largest computer trade shows in the country, Spring Comdex
in Atlanta, Georgia.

The products gaining the most attention at the show were the new PCs
based on Intel's latest and greatest microprocessor, the Pentium and
the new Windows NT operating system from Microsoft. Of the computer
companies listed in the top twenty most active stocks, Intel made
the largest gains with its stock climbing $6 3/4 to close at $110
1/2 per share.

Some reports are the Intel gains are due to the acceptance of the
Pentium. Demand for Intel's new Pentium microprocessor is high and
original equipment manufacturers are fighting to get it. However, it
is widely reported that Intel won't be able to meet demand. The
company's manufacturing processes have produced fewer Pentium chips
than anticipated and so there simply are not enough of the chips to
go around.

The number of goof "die" or chips a semiconductor manufacturer can
derive from a wafer is its yield. Despite problems, Intel says it
can improve chip yields more quickly than analysts anticipate and
can quickly churn out large volumes of the Pentium.

Thomas Kurlack, an analyst at Merrill Lynch was quoted in an Intel
internal publication as saying investors consistently under-estimate
Intel's earning prospect because they do not consider the impact of
manufacturing and Intel's improvements in productivity.

"Chip cost is generally related to die size and good die per wafer
yield. We suggest investors increase their focus on Intel's process
changes to smaller design rules and larger wafer sizes,"

Intel is pointing to its i486 microprocessor as an example, saying
it was able to add manufacturing capacity and push its manufacturing
technology to "dramatically" improve yields. Defects per wafer have
been reduced ten-fold since the i386 and maximum yields can be
achieved four times faster than ten years ago, Intel maintains.

The company is also pointing to its new Fab 9 manufacturing
expansion in Rio Rancho, New Mexico -- estimated to cost $1 billion.
Intel has already said it believes it can have chips coming out of
the new plant in a year.

Just because it can ramp up production does not mean it will cut
Pentium costs to consumers, however. The company says it is packing
3.1 million transistors with the lines actually etched on the
silicon down to .6 microns. (The i486 has lines .8 microns in
width.) For comparison, a human hair is 100 microns in width.

The smaller sizes allow Intel to double the transistor density, but
also mean the chips are more sensitive to smaller defects, meaning
more quality control.

The bottom line is four to five times more manufacturing capacity is
needed to build a Pentium processor and at several thousand dollars
a square foot, the cost of building a Pentium is much higher. Intel
estimates that 40 percent of the cost of the Pentium comes from
equipment depreciation, and says that figure is rising.

The analysts may not be as optimistic as Intel would hope, but they
are raising their estimates. According to the Institutional Brokers
Estimate System (IBES), who surveys professional securities analysts
at brokerage and research firms, all the analysts surveyed have
adjusted their earns estimate for Intel upward. IBES says analysts
are expecting Intel's stock to earn $9.86 a share for 1993 and
$10.50 in 1994.

In other Intel stock news, the company announced its stockholders
have approved a stock split effective June 7, 1993. The move was
made to off set a mysterious dive the company's stock took several
weeks back.

Michele Bourdon, a spokeswoman for Intel, said that the theory at
Intel is the company's record first quarter sales of over two
billion coupled with the rising stock prices made the average
investor think the company's stock just couldn't go any higher.
Cutting the price- per-share in half by splitting the stock is a
move designed to make Intel stock more "affordable," she said.

(Linda Rohrbough/19930527/Press Contact: Michele Bourdon,
Intel, tel [phone], fax [phone])