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/NB930609

Text File | 1993-06-09 | 74KB | 1,629 lines

(NEWS)(IBM)(LAX)(00001)

Update - Taking The Heat - $40 Device Cools Pentium 06/09/93
SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 JUN 9 (NB) -- [NOTE:
this version corrects the previous one written and published
06/08/93 and corrects a minor mistake.]

The heat problems with the Pentium processor, to be released in
personal computers (PCs) beginning this summer, are no secret.
However, Norman Bailey of Pcubid, inventor of the CPU Kooler
for the 486 chip, says he's ready with the Pentium CPU Kooler.

The Pentium has a whopping 3.1 million transistors - the
more transistors, the more heat. Without thermal control, the
Pentium can reach temperatures that are at or above 100 degrees
Celsius, which is the boiling point of water. With plastic used
so heavily in motherboards, the heat produced by the Pentium
could cause serious damage not only to the chip itself, but to
the chip socket and the motherboard. Heat problems with the
four- to five-watt 486 will be nothing compared to what can
happen with the 16- to 18-watt Pentium, Bailey said.

While Intel has released specifications regarding the way the
Pentium needs to be placed and cooled inside the PC cabinet,
original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) trying to save money,
don't always follow those instructions, according to Bailey.

The original CPU Kooler for the 486 was a big success. So
successful in fact, that Kooler clones are already flooding the
market. Users with repeated intermittent error problems on
their 486 machines reported that installation of the CPU Kooler
solved those problems.

One of the biggest fans of the CPU Kooler is Jeffery Voss, of
Voss Engineers, Planners, and Surveyers. Voss had critical
drawings and deadlines that forced him to back-up his 486
system three to four times a day, because failures were so
frequent. After installation of the CPU Kooler, those
problems went away.

Simple in design, the CPU Kooler is a heat sink with a fan on
top that gets its power from one of the extra cables that power
the disk drives. If extra cables are not available, a "Y"
adapter can be used to power the Kooler. The 486 Kooler reduced
the 486 operating temperature by 90 degrees. Clones of the Kooler
are rampant, but Bailey has added additional features to his
Pentium Kooler and redesigned his 486 Kooler to set them apart
from the crowd.

One feature the Kooler now offers is a way for users to monitor
the temperature of the CPU (central processing unit) during the
computer's operation. A hole in the center of one of the sides of
the heat sink allows a $15 Radio Shack Digital Thermometer to
monitor the temperature of the CPU at all times. Users requested
the ability to monitor the temperature because the fan on the
CPU Kooler is so quiet they can't hear it running. Bailey designed
the fan so it would be silent and says clones of the product
often have not taken the fan noise into consideration.

The new CPU Kooler is also only 0.6-inches high, which makes it
fit in even the narrowest PC cabinet. The Kooler is also optimized
so the position of the fan over the heat sink is at the precise
height. This height allows the air vortex, created by the spinning
of the fan's propeller blades, to offer the maximum "heat
destruction."

The biggest problem Bailey sees coming with the new Pentium
chips is replacing the 486 with the Pentium. "There may be half
a million to a million zero insertion force (ZIF) socket
motherboards out there, and users expect to be able to replace
their 486 chip with a Pentium CPU," Bailey said. Possible
scenarios from the heat of the Pentium range from intermittent
data loss or melting of the ZIF socket. to damage to the
Pentium chip itself. The Pentium CPU Kooler can bring down the
temperature of the CPU to much more acceptable levels of about
twenty degrees above the inside temperature of the case. The
inside temperature of the case, of course, depends on the room,
but is usually five degrees above the room temperature or 80
degrees Fahrenheit.

In addition, users who upgrade 486 systems might want to
consider the CPU Kooler. By going to a one-gigabyte (GB) hard
drive, for example, users can find the extra heat energy from
the new drive can cause them problems where they had none
before. Bailey says he's had several cases of users buying CPU
Koolers in upgrade situations precisely for those reasons.

Also, air movement in the cabinet is what is required to make a
heat sink work. Bailey says a simple experiment can tell users
if air movement is happening inside the cabinet. Tape single
ply toilet paper to the sides of the cabinet inside, then watch
through the back or through one of the disk drive slots to see
if the toilet paper moves when the computer is on. Any air
movement should flap the toilet paper. Users with just a heat
sink on their CPU who are concerned about heat can purchase
just the fan portion of the CPU Kooler to attach to their heat
sink to be sure the heat is being dissipated.

The Pentium CPU Kooler is $39.95, the same price as the 486
Kooler. The current retail price of the Pentium chip alone is
estimated at $1,100 to $1,500. Bailey says installation is a
two-minute job and does not require removal of the current CPU.

(Linda Rohrbough/19930608/Press Contact: Norman Bailey,
Pcubid Computer Technology, tel [phone],
fax [phone])


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00002)

Sun Signs Up For TCP/IP Network 06/09/93
EL SEGUNDO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 JUN 9 (NB) -- Sun
Microsystems claims that Infonet will provide it with a
worldwide data network under the TCP/IP (Transmission
Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) standard. It is the same
standard used by the network of linked networks known as
the Internet.

The new contract is based on an Infonet product called Infolan,
which is based on devices called routers. Infolan is sold as a
method for linking local area networks in many locations. When
JP  Morgan announced recently it would out-source its data
networks rather than continue to operate its own network, it
went with Infolan. The JP Morgan deal was a joint win with MCI,
which owns 25 percent of Infonet. The rest of the company is
held by a number of international phone companies.

Infonet uses its international partners, and its offices in over
47 countries, as a draw for selling its services. Infolan will be
used by sun to complement a network nicknamed SWAN (Sun's
Wide Area Network).

Infolan will also be used to bring the company's strategic
partners and customers onto Sun's internal network. Examples
would include customers who need to access Sun's product
database for prices and availability, or suppliers supporting
Sun factories who need to pick up or confirm orders.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19930608/Press Contact: Infonet Services,
Mike Radice, 310-335-2861; Sun Microsystems, Cindee Mock,
415-336-3563)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEL)(00003)

India - VSNL Offers EDI Service With HCL HP 06/09/93
NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1993 JUN 9 (NB) -- Indian traders may soon
enjoy the benefits of paperless transactions. HCL Hewlett-
Packard is joining forces with Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (VSNL)
to set up the country's first electronic data interchange (EDI)
service for commerce, industry, and public administration.

Expected to be operational in July, the new facility - called
Gedis Tradenet - will allow exporters and importers, traders and
transporters, financiers and investors, as well as customs and
insurance authorities to electronically process such documents
as bills of landing, bank statements, letters of credit, and
excise permits.

The pilot installations of Gedis Tradenet will be at the Bombay
port. The main node will be in the form of a HP 9000 server
based at VSNL's office in Bombay. To run the network, HCL HP
is using a special EDI software package from INS, the UK-based
subsidiary of General Electric. The software is being customized
to meet local requirements.

VSNL is aggressively promoting its Rs 2.5-crore (around $800,000)
project through awareness seminars at the four cities - Delhi,
Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras. Subscribers can use the EDI
service after an initial investment of about Rs 2 lakh (around
$6,000) for front-end software.

Users can even access international EDI networks through VSNL's
gateway packet switching system. "Almost all exporters will
subscribe to Gedis Tradenet and this will open up newer
potentials for both VSNL and HCL HP," said a confident Ajay
Choudhary, director of marketing for HCL HP. Anticipating the
popularity of EDI to increase the demand for its Vectra series
of PCs, he admits that his company's profits from the project
will depend upon VSNL's marketing skills.

(C.T. Mahabharat/19930604)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00004)

UK Software Sales Flat 06/09/93
LONDON, ENGLAND, 1993 JUN 9 (NB) -- According to a report
issued by Context, the London-based market research company,
unit sales of software supplied via indirect sales channels in
the UK showed a five percent drop for the first quarter of 1993,
compared to the same period last year.

Clemency Read, a software market analyst with the company,
said that the slight downward trend is a reflection of the
changes taking place in the distribution channels, rather than
an actual downturn in sales. "For example, a substantial amount
of business is now in upgrades sold to end users directly by the
software vendors themselves, and not via the traditional
channels," she said.

An interesting trend is that sales of software "suites" have
shown massive gains, which has impacted sales of standalone
word processing and spreadsheet software. "The price advantage
of buying a suite rather than the individual products is
enormous," Read commented.

According to Context, the software "suite" market is dominated
at the moment by Microsoft Office and by Lotus Smartsuite.
Read noted that Borland announced in the US its own Windows
office package at the end of April. The package links the
Windows versions of Quattro Pro and Paradox with Wordperfect.

Context also reports that database sales have also increased
over the last year, with the bulk of the sales growth taking
place at the beginning of the year - a 95 percent increase on
the last quarter of 1992. This, the market research company
notes, is due primarily to the launch of Paradox for Windows
and Microsoft Access for Windows, and their special
promotional offers of UKP99.

Context's figures also show that there has been substantial
month-on-month growth of 35 percent in total database sales
between February and March of this year.

Unit sales of Windows applications, on the other hand have
grown by 129 percent in the first quarter of 1993, compared
to the same period last year.

(Steve Gold/19930608/Press & Public Contact: Context -
tel [phone], fax [phone])


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00005)

UK - Persistence Bridges Object/Relational Technologies 06/09/93
LONDON, ENGLAND, 1993 JUN 9 (NB) -- Persistent Storage has
announced plans to launch Persistence, its new software bridge
for object oriented and relational technologies, at the Object
Expo Europe (OEE) exhibition.

According to the company, Persistence allows relational
tables to be used with C++ applications.

Persistent claims that the package is the first of its type to
automate development of the database access, providing
significant productivity, performance, and portability benefits.
Trials using the software have already been carried out around
the world, the company claims, with C++ developers such as
Sunpro, Andersen Consulting, Dupont, and Nippon Steel taking
part.

Persistence consists of a series of tools - the Database
Interface (DIG) Generator and Runtime Object management
System (ROMS).

The company says that DIG enables the developers to define an
object model and then automatically generate the C++ program
code to provide a set of data access methods that then allow
the database to be treated as if it were object oriented.

The ROMS, meanwhile, interfaces the Persistence code with the
relational database, allowing database access, transaction
control, and object caching. By using Persistence, the company
claims that users can increase their application run time
performance by a factor of ten or more.

Pricing on Persistence will be announced at the OOE
exhibition, which will take place at the Queen Elizabeth II
conference center on July 14 and 15

(Steve Gold/19930608/Press & Public Contact: Peter Parsonage -
Tel: [phone]; Fax: [phone]; OOE Contact: Peter
Lloyd PR - Tel: [phone]; Fax: [phone]; Email via
the Internet - [e-mail] or on Compuserve -
100116,3104)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00006)

 ****Judge To Fine White House Over E-mail Records 06/09/93
WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A., 1993 JUN 9 (NB) -- US District Judge
Charles R. Richey has once again ruled against the Executive
Office of the President and the National Security Council, at the
White House, and the Archivist, whose office is charged with
maintaining federal government records and releasing appropriate
documents to historians and reporters. The latest ruling could
cost the violators from $50,000 to $200,000 per day in contempt
fines.

According to a report in today's Washington Post, Judge Richey
said the defendants have "dillydallied, done little and delayed
for the past five months rather than make serious efforts to
comply" with his previous orders to keep the electronic federal
records intact.

"The crux of this lawsuit is the preservation of the history of
this country beginning with the administrations of Presidents
Reagan and Bush and, more specifically, the preservation of
electronic records," Richey said. Those records include
electronic-mail and logs containing information that Richey
said "historians and others need to know about what essential
people in the government knew and when they knew it."

As a result, the judge has said that he will impose fines after
June 21, escalating from $50,000 per day for the first week to
$200,000 per day if the agencies involved fail to make secure
backups of nearly 300 deteriorating computer backup tapes.

Although the new head of the National Archives has filed an
appeal scheduled to be heard just prior to the June 21 date,
Judge Richey refused to stay his contempt order because the
White House has transferred more than 6,000 tapes to the
National Archives, which, according to the Washington Post,
have no facilities to duplicate the tapes.

This battle, with historians and the press (who want to make
public policy records public) on one side and the federal
government on the other, began when the history-oriented
National Security Archives sued the Bush Administration over
the White House's plans to erase all of what it considered
"unimportant" electronic mail messages and telephone call
logs.

The then-US Archivist, Don H. Wilson, agreed with the
administration's seemingly contradictory contention that these
records were both too unimportant to save for posterity and too
revealing of internal policy discussions to be allowed outside
the White House.

On the eve of his leaving office, President Bush signed a January
19 agreement with the outgoing Archivist with under which the
files would be kept intact but would become the personal
property of George Herbert Walker Bush.

This was a strange transaction necessary (to Bush) because, under
The Presidential Records Act of 1978, which was passed into law
to block former President Nixon from destroying the infamous
Watergate tapes, the government now has complete ownership and
control of all Presidential records.

Soon thereafter Don H. Wilson, now the retired head of the
National Archives, was named head of the new Bush Presidential
Library in Texas, and the curious coincidence of a government
official signing such an agreement with an outgoing President
at the same time he was apparently negotiating for a job at that
President's Library, has resulted in both a civil lawsuit against
Wilson and the recent announcement of a criminal investigation
now being conducted into the events by the Clinton Justice
Department.

Back in January, John Conyers Jr., Democratic Representative
from Michigan and the chairman of the Government Operations
Committee, had asked the General Accounting Office to conduct
a separate investigation into possible violations of federal laws
which some observers contend prohibit just the sort of actions
taken by the former President and head of the National Archives.

The law referred to by Rep. Conyers prohibits anyone in
government from negotiating with or making any decisions
which would affect a company or individual with whom he or
she is conducting employment discussions.

The Washington Post reported on February 17 that Wilson said
through a spokesperson that he "welcomed" an investigation and
that he was assured by all parties that these agreements were
proper and legal.

A few days earlier, US District Judge Charles Richey expressed
fears that the current administration may go ahead and erase
important computer files in violation of his earlier ruling that
the records must be left intact.

Some historians and journalists argue that, if the selective
erasure of files is left up to Presidential staff, then vital
records would be lost which will be needed by future
generations to learn how decisions were actually made.

(John McCormick/19930609/)


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

US Super Collider/Space Station In Danger Of Cancellation 06/09/93
WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A., 1993 JUN 9 (NB) -- Two high-profile,
high-tech projects are now on very shaky ground for the second
time in two years, as the Texas-based Superconductor Super
Collider and the Space Station Freedom are threatened by a
combination of Democratic political losses in the Lone Star
State and public demands for a cut in federal spending.

Although Democratic law makers, and members of the Clinton-Gore
Administration, are busily denying any political motives of any
sort, some observers claim that it was interesting to see that on
the day following the election of new Republican Senator Kay
Bailey Hutchison from Texas, there was renewed talk of killing
off the multi-billion-dollar Texas-based Superconductor Super
Collider (SSC) and building a less expensive space station.

NASA, which reorganized during the Democratic Johnson (Texas
Democrat) Administration in the 1960s when it moved its main
base to the Houston, Texas area, will suffer proportional budget
cuts for personnel and advanced computer systems if there are
any cuts made in the expensive Space Station Freedom that was
so widely promoted during the Bush (Texas Republican)
Administration.

Although they did not wish to be quoted directly, some Democrats,
looking at the prospect of losing a critical Senate vote due to
Texas having two Republican Senators for the first time in a
century, have parroted the many campaign complaints about
government pork and big government spending made by Hutchison
during the recent Texas campaign and are now enthusiastic about
supporting her budget-cutting stand, beginning with two major
government projects based in her own state.

Earlier this week, Hutchison defeated the incumbent
Democratic Senator who had been appointed by Democratic Texas
Governor Ann Richards to fill the seat vacated by Lloyd Bentsen,
who was selected by President Clinton for the post of Secretary
of the Treasury.

(John McCormick/19930609)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00008)

High-Tech Job Listings On Career Television Network 06/09/93
FORT LEE, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1993 JUN 9 (NB) -- Looking for a
new job? Well, stop watching those late night info-mercials
telling you to spray on more hair or make a kajillion dollars
buying distressed real estate, and tune in to the CNBC cable
channel at 5 a.m. for an hour of job-hunting tips and hot leads
to actual job openings with the largest companies on The Career
Television Network (TCTN).

CNBC, the Consumer News and Business Channel, a division of NBC,
has been running the TCTN program for about a month now and the
viewer response seems to be growing with the daily caller-level
now reaching 200.

The TCTN show, hosted by Bob Smith and Deborah Silverstein, not
only provides the usual sort of "get out and sell yourself" pep
talks for job seekers, but also lists actual professional,
managerial, and executive financial service job openings (many of
them computer- or high-tech related). It also provides a toll-free
telephone number to call for more information on each job lead.

In just the last few minutes of today's broadcast, Newsbytes saw
several listings for programming-related positions at major
companies. The leads themselves are one-screen job description
very much like what you would see in a newspaper want ad section.

For the present, job seekers can obtain more information on each
job listing for free, but this is described as a temporary offer,
so apparently there will be a charge after an unspecified
introductory period. The information packet sent out in response
to the call will generally include a job description and a
contact at the advertising company, along with an application
or instructions.

(John McCormick/19930609/Press Contact: Jason Klarman,
CNBC, 201-585-6437 or 201-585-6244 fax)


(NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00009)

 ****Study At IBM Plants Links Miscarriages To Solvent 06/09/93
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, U.S.A., 1993 JUN 9 (NB) -- A study of
pregnancies among IBM workers, conducted by researchers at Johns
Hopkins University, suggests a link between miscarriages and
exposure to cleaning solvents containing ethylene glycol ether
compounds (ECEs). The solvents are used in production of
integrated circuit chips.

In a retrospective study covering 1980 through 1989, researchers
from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health looked at 561
pregnancies among workers in chip-producing clean rooms at East
Fishkill, New York, and Burlington, Vermont. They compared
miscarriage rates for three groups: those with extensive exposure
to the solvents, those with moderate exposure, and those who
never worked with the solvents.

Out of 30 pregnancies among those who worked extensively with
solvents containing ECEs, said Dr. Ronald Gray of Johns Hopkins,
10 miscarried. That 33 percent rate was significantly higher than
the 18.9 percent miscarriage rate among 74 pregnant women with
moderate exposure to ECEs, and a 14.9 percent rate among 332
pregnancies with no exposure.

Researchers also compared miscarriage rates among the clean
room workers to rates among female IBM employees in other
manufacturing and office jobs. Gray said there was no significant
difference between miscarriage rates in the clean room over all
and those among other workers (higher rates among the few
workers extensively exposed to ECEs were not enough to affect
over-all clean-room rates significantly, he explained).

The researchers also studied 92 pregnancies between 1989 and
1991 in more detail. This study, which monitored urine samples
from women trying to become pregnant, detected higher over-all
miscarriage rates because it was able to detect early
miscarriages that occurred before the women knew they were
pregnant, Gray said. Of 48 pregnant employees outside the clean
rooms, 21 or about 44 percent had miscarriages. Of 38 working in
clean rooms but not extensively exposed to the solvents, about 55
percent miscarried. Of six working extensively with the solvents,
four, or 66 percent, had miscarriages.

Gray cautioned that the figures from the smaller 1989-1991 study
are not statistically significant because of the small samples.
However, he added, they "do not contradict" the larger study,
which does indicate a relationship between exposure to the
cleaning solvents and higher miscarriage rates.

Johns Hopkins believes the ethylene glycol ethers are the
ingredient of the solvents to blame for the miscarriages because
of earlier studies involving animals that link these substances
to reproductive problems, he added.

An earlier study conducted by the University of California for
the Semiconductor Industry Association yielded similar findings
to the IBM study, Gray said. The Occupational Health and Safety
Administration (OSHA) is to hold hearings this summer on
possible changes to rules governing the use of ECEs.

IBM commissioned the university to conduct the study. The company
has already made a commitment to eliminate the ECE solvents from
all of its operations worldwide by the end of 1994, company
spokeswoman Janet Carnegie said, and they have been removed
from some plants already.

(Grant Buckler/19930609/Press Contact: Dr. Ronald Gray, Johns
Hopkins University, 410-955-5000; Janet Carnegie, IBM,
914-765-6432)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00010)

Systemhouse Mexican Joint Venture Dissolved 06/09/93
MEXICO CITY, MEXICO, 1993 JUN 9 (NB) -- Canadian systems
integrator SHL Systemhouse and Mexican consulting firm
Gervassi Clark have dissolved a joint venture created in 1992 to
run computer operations for the Mexican finance ministry.

Systemhouse will continue providing technology services to the
ministry, said Harry Schlough, a company vice-president. However,
about 2,000 former ministry employees who had become employees
of the joint venture will go back to working for the ministry.

The government decided to bring the workers back under its own
roof for "various political and policy reasons," Schlough said.

Since Gervassi Clark's primary role in the joint venture was
managing the employees taken over from the ministry, it is no
longer involved in the contract. However, Schlough said,
Systemhouse believes its own connection with the Mexican
government is "still a long-term relationship."

Systemhouse will lose some revenue as a result of the change, he
admitted, but this money was mainly going to pay the employees
of the joint venture. "We don't believe that it will have any
material impact on our financial performance."

Systemhouse will focus on system and network design for the
finance ministry, company officials said.

The original deal was announced with much fanfare and signed on
Mexican state-owned television in August of last year. It was
originally said to be worth about US$500 million over 10 years.

(Grant Buckler/19930609/Press Contact: Harry Schlough, SHL
Systemhouse, 416-366-4600; Marie Cloherty, SHL Systemhouse,
613-236-1428)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00011)

The Net E-Mail System & EMBARC Link In Canada 06/09/93
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1993 JUN 9 (NB) -- Subscribers to
The Net, an electronic mail and information service run by a
subsidiary of Bell Canada, can now send electronic mail to users
of the EMBARC wireless electronic mail service.

Bell subsidiary WorldLinx Telecommunications and Motorola
Canada, operator of the Electronic Mail Broadcast to a
Roaming Computer (EMBARC) system, announced the agreement,
saying it would be particularly useful to companies that
regularly send the same message to long lists of recipients.

EMBARC currently provides coverage in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal,
Halifax, Calgary, Vancouver, and more than 220 cities in the
United States. According to Don Smart, EMBARC project manager at
Motorola Canada, about eight more cities will be added this year,
probably including Edmonton, Regina, Winnipeg, Quebec City, and
London and Hamilton in Ontario.

The link is one-way: users of The Net Mail can send messages to
EMBARC subscribers, but EMBARC subscribers cannot send
messages in the other direction, said Len Mcquat, director of
business development at WorldLinx.

It is not the first wireless link for The Net, which also
connects to the Mobitex and Bell Ardis networks and allows brief
messages to be sent to pagers, Mcquat said.

Nor is it the first such connection for EMBARC, to which messages
can already be sent through the GE BusinessTalk, IBM Mail
Exchange, SprintMail, Pacific Bell Connection, and AT&T EasyLink
mail services, Motorola said.

EMBARC can be used with most DOS-based and Apple Macintosh
personal computers, including desktop machines, laptops,
notebooks, and palmtops, company officials said. The Canadian
service operates over the 931 megahertz (MHz) radio network,
and uses a receiver that attaches to the user's computer.

(Grant Buckler/19930609/Press Contact: Joyce Toye, Motorola,
416-756-5612; Wendy Hughes, WorldLinx, 613-781-0801)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00012)

Rate-Group Change To Raise Toronto Phone Rates 06/09/93
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1993 JUN 9 (NB) -- Telephone
subscribers in Toronto, already facing rate increases this fall
if federal regulators approve an earlier application by Bell
Canada, may see their bills go up even sooner. Bell has notified
the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
(CRTC) that calling volumes in Toronto have topped the limit for
its current rate group, and assigning the city to the next group
would boost rates by seven to eight percent.

Canadian regulatory policy divides local calling areas into rate
groups based on the number of telephones subscribers can reach
without long-distance charges, the volume of calling, and the
distances involved. Calling volume in the metropolitan area was
five percent above the upper limit for rate group 14 in April and
May, said Sandra Cruickshanks, a Bell spokeswoman. So, Bell filed
a report with the CRTC, which is expected to lead to Toronto
being moved to rate group 15.

That would mean residential rates would rise by C$1.10 per
month, to C$13.70, and business rates would go up C$3.30,
to C$48.

In February, Bell Canada applied to the CRTC for a rate increase
affecting all of its territory, with additional increases in
Toronto, Montreal, and the Ottawa and Hull, Quebec, metropolitan
area. These cities would see their local calling areas increased
to allow free calls to more outlying areas.

(Grant Buckler/19930609/Press Contact: Sandra Cruickshanks,
Bell Canada, 416-581-4205)


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

 ****Comacs' Technology Replaces Modems 06/09/93
ORLANDO, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1993 JUN 9 (NB) -- When a device
becomes common, it's sometimes hard to understand the concept
of a replacement. That's the problem Comacs President Oriana
Schoneberg told Newsbytes she's having with her company's
AHEAD technology.

AHEAD, which stands for Asynchronous Halfwave Encoding And
Decoding, is not an error-correction scheme for modems. It's not
a new way of modulation for modems. It's a complete replacement
for modems. A team of 17 scientists under Dr. Rainald Schoneberg,
Schoneberg's husband, spend seven years coming up with AHEAD,
and the couple is now showing a prototype to potential licensees
of the technology, which won a US patent in 1992.

A modem, which stands for modulator-demodulator, sends data on
the pulses of a sine wave. The line's "signaling rate" works like
the beat of a drum, and modem technology is limited by it. With
AHEAD, the frequency of a tone has meaning, and so does the
length of time it's held, says Dr. Schoneberg. "There's no drum
keeping the rhythm. Information is contained in the duration of
the chords - notes on the bit level, chords on the byte level -
and the notes the chords are composed of." A chip implementing
AHEAD would code the notes, or decode them at the other end.
You might think of AHEAD, then, as an analog codec.

Despite replacing the modem, AHEAD is compatible with all
telephone networks, and all radios, Dr. Schoneberg says. The chip
can encode with a microphone input, and decode with a speaker for
output. All the error-correction techniques now used by modems
work with AHEAD, he adds. AHEAD will work with any analog device,
whether a regular telephone line, a cellular phone line, or even
a regular radio.

"Rainald said he made data sound better," said Schoneberg.
"We just need 2-2.5 kilohertz (KHz) of bandwidth to encode
digitized speech of high quality."

Dr. Schoneberg then offered a more technical explanation of
AHEAD. "The only thing that carries information are frequencies.
To put more data in those frequencies, we encode and decode
half-waves. We look in the time domain, and measure the time
from 0 to 0, or peak to peak, and we decode a time measurement.
It's like a continuous phase - it doesn't matter when it crosses
the zero line, just the difference in time between crosses,
measured in milliseconds. FSK, which is the most robust
modulation used on modems, can manage to transmit only
1,200 baud, because they need 12 full waves to transmit one bit.
We need half a full wave. And in this wave we can transmit large
blocks of data.

Schoneberg says when she and her company began showing
AHEAD, many corporate scientists didn't understand it, partly
because they hadn't invented it, partly because it didn't follow
existing rules of data transmission. "It's a new-born baby." One
professor actually walked out of a demonstration, because the
concept was too big. "He came back in 10 minutes to continue the
conversation - he couldn't cope with it." NASA scientists,
however, who are more used to new concepts, had a better
reaction. "They were real happy about it."

While Schoneberg could not be specific on who AHEAD is
discussing licenses with, Newsbytes has learned they include
radio makers, chip makers, even telecommunications concerns.
When formal agreements are signed, she promised, the press
will be notified.

Schoneberg founded Comacs in 1980, before she met
Dr. Schoneberg. In the 1980s, Comacs specialized in computer
systems for oil companies. The need for the AHEAD technology
emerged from that work, because tankers need to be in
communications with shore-based offices.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19930608/Press Contact: Comacs,
Oriana Schoneberg, 407-859-5599)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00014)

Jupiter's Harris Discusses On-line Business 06/09/93
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1993 JUN 9 (NB) -- Prodigy will
hang in there, while America Online will continue to score gains,
according to on-line market analyst Joshua Harris of Jupiter
Communications.

Harris recently completed a new estimate of on-line networks'
audiences, which showed that Prodigy, which claims to have over
two million enrolled households, actually has just 1.23 million
subscribers. That puts it slightly ahead of CompuServe, with
1.125 million. GEnie was third at 300,000, and America OnLine
fourth, at about 275,000. A large number of "others," including
The Well, StarText, The Sierra Network, USA Today Sports Center,
and US Videotel, had a total of 90,000 members among them.

Newsbytes asked Harris about those figures and how he got them.
From most services, he gets some degree of cooperation. As to
Prodigy - "they sell advertising, so I talk to advertisers. Prodigy
has to tell them the truth."

Harris said CompuServe, America Online and GEnie remain
profitable, and Prodigy will continue in business despite its
lack of profits. "At this point Prodigy isn't losing that much
money," he says. "They'll continue dragging along here. Of more
interest is a Prodigy proposal to put a version of its service
onto cable television. "They're all in the race to link with
cable boxes. George Lucas agrees with my thinking that you'll
end up with two TV sets - one a big screen and one a control
monitor." The smaller set will have an on-line service. But most
consumers already have a TV, linked to a computer, for an on-line
service, and another TV with a cable box. "The whole thing is it
will all be linked. The other thing coming out is you won't have
500 channels, you'll have broadband capacity in which you can
pick and choose."

Harris says the biggest recent surprise in the market is that
GEnie got slammed by some for supposedly raising prices, while
it was in fact following a move by America Online. "The key
announcement here is America Online's Steve Case pulling a fast
one, claiming he was lowering his prices when he was in fact
raising them. He said he was going after Prodigy's pricing plan,
while in fact he was raising his monthly minimum. He raised his
monthly minimum and lowered his hourly charges. That's what
GEnie did. The difference is Steve was a little smarter about it.
It's all in the perception." Harris said America Online will catch
GEnie "sooner or later" and become the third-largest service,
"just because they have smart management." However, "GEnie
will make more profits, and I'd rather have that."

(Dana Blankenhorn/19930608/Press Contact: Jupiter
Communications, Joshua Harris, 212-941-9252)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(ATL)(00015)

Cable TV Suits Reported Settled 06/09/93
WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1993 JUN 9 (NB) -- A coalition of state
attorneys general appear to have settled anti-trust concerns with
the cable television industry by requiring that programmers do
what they've started doing anyway.

The investigation started last year, and was headed by New York
Attorney General Robert Abrams, who at the time was running for
a US Senate seat eventually won by incumbent Al D'Amato. The
investigators charged that cable networks, which are owned in
large part by big cable operators like TCI, were refusing to sell
the services to new wireless, microwave, and direct broadcast
operators, or were pricing them at a prohibitive price.

Under the terms of the settlement, cable programmers must sell
their wares at a non-discriminatory price to potential wireless
competitors, but they've already started doing this. DirecTv, a
direct broadcast unit of GM's Hughes unit, has recently won
agreements to carry many popular cable channels.

The settlement, as reported by other media, does not seem to go
nearly as far as some firms, like TCI, feared it would. TCI last
year spun-off its programming holdings into a new unit, Liberty
Media, separating them somewhat from actual cable operations.

The idea of separating programming from delivery in antitrust law
goes back to the 1950s, when movie house chains like Loews were
forced to divest themselves of studios like MGM. It's also
reflected in the so-called "fin-syn" rules, by which TV networks
can't own the shows they put on their air. But the effects of
those long-standing rules have lately been questioned by
analysts. The rules on movies helped kill the old studio system,
and TV networks are fading as players in programming because if
the fin-syn rules, which are due to be relaxed.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19930609)


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

Bell Atlantic Details CDPD Plans 06/09/93
BEDMINSTER, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1993 JUN 9 (NB) -- Bell Atlantic
Mobile will install the CDPD packet cellular technology in its
networks starting this fall in Washington. A spokesman discussed
the company's plans with Newsbytes.

Karen Ann Kurlander confirmed that the plans for CDPD, first
introduced last year by IBM and a coalition of major cellular
operators, doesn't eliminate a competing technology, from CDI of
Mountain View, California. CDI recently won agreement with
Westinghouse to install CDI in Bell Atlantic's Baltimore system.
CDI sends data at up to 2,400 bits-per-second (bps) in the spaces
between calling channels. CDPD, on the other hand, can send data
at up to 9,600 bps using unused calling channels. "Technically
they can co-exist in a network."

Kurlander added that Bell Atlantic hopes to have CDPD in all its
markets by the end of 1994. "We don't know the order, but it will
be driven by our partners who create applications." In addition
to the mid-Atlantic region, where it is the "wireline" operator,
Bell Atlantic also has "non-wireline" licenses in Charlotte and
other parts of the Carolinas.

Kurlander said the company has high hopes for CDPD. Based on
estimates by Booz Allen Hamilton, which reported in 1992 that
wireless data could be an $8-$10 billion market by the year 2000,
Bell Atlantic could be competing for a $1.3 billion market, based
on how much of the country its markets cover.

The company is also looking to a number of partners to help it
create applications, as it selects vendors to install the CDPD
equipment. "We're selecting the companies that can come up with
applications, and even market them to end users." One Bell
Atlantic executive speculated that transit systems like that of
Washington, D.C. which depend on pre-paid "fare cards" at train
systems, could extend their use to buses with wireless
technology, but, "Right now the bus application is blue-sky. It's
currently impractical, because cellular networks are only
transmitting circuit-switched data. But the potential application
really exists."

The big advantage of CDPD, of course, is that it can reliably
transmit data at high speed, and could cost less than using a
modem on a regular cellular call. The problem is that Bell
Atlantic, like other regional Bell companies, has come to the
conclusion it's not adept at creating applications.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19930609/Press Contact: Karen Ann
Kurlander, 908-306-7552)


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

Sprint's Frazee Steps Down: Visa Deal 06/09/93
KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, U.S.A., 1993 JUN 9 (NB) -- Sprint stock
came under pressure, with one analyst revising his estimate
downward, after Sprint announced at its annual meeting that
former Centel Chairman Jack Frazee will be leaving the company.

The stock recovered somewhat after it announced a calling card
plan with Visa, an enhancement to the Visa card which allows the
Visa card to be used as a calling card. A Sprint spokesman told
Newsbytes the new Visa calling card will be easier to use, since
calling card codes will be home phone numbers, which are also
used on Sprint Fon cards, and they can be used to access a wide
array of Sprint services, like conference calls, voice mail,
message services and information services. It's also the first
time callers using credit cards have been able to choose whether
to get charges on their credit cards or their regular phone bills,
if they also have a Sprint Fon card.

Before Centel merged into Sprint, telecommunications analysts
said the smaller company had much better management, and they
expressed some hope that Centel managers might be about to
turn-around Sprint, which they called too bureaucratic to compete
in the fast-moving industry. The announcement that Frazee, now
Sprint's president, would be leaving just a few months after the
companies' merger, thus came as a shock.

Chairman William T. Esrey, who made the announcement part of his
speech to shareholders, later said Frazee had said he wanted to
spend more time with his family. But that is frequently an excuse
used by executives who are, in fact, looking for new work. Frazee
insisted on the Sprint merger in the face of strong opposition
from some holders, who claimed that, based on Sprint's $22 stock
price, their 1.35 Sprint shares were worth far less than Centel's
then-selling price of $42 per share. At its recent price of $30
per share, however, the merged Centel shares are worth about $42.

As part of Esrey's speech, Sprint also announced a $30 million
"corporate image campaign" for the remainder of the year,
featuring actress Candice Bergen, who's been advertising Sprint's
long distance service. However, analysts are worried that Sprint
is being left out of the global telecomm race by MCI's deal with
BT and AT&T's WorldSource program. Legg Mason, for instance,
dropped its rating on Sprint from a buy to a hold, while raising
its estimate of MCI. After the Visa plan was announced, Sprint
stock recovered to about $31 by mid-day June 9.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19930609/Press Contact: Robin Pence
202-828-7426, Sprint)


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

AT&T Files New Complaint Against MCI 06/09/93
WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1993 JUN 9 (NB) -- AT&T pressed its
legal advantage over MCI with a formal complaint charging
that the second-largest long distance company is ignoring an
order to reveal its rates.

All this began as part of AT&T's drive to remove the "dominant
carrier" provisions which require that it file detailed rates
with the Federal Communications Commission. After failing to
have the order lifted before regulators, it sued MCI, calling the
rules disciminatory. Courts agreed, and the FCC issued necessary
orders May 4. Since AT&T claims MCI has not complied with that
order, AT&T charges it is "defying the law in order to gain an
illegal competitive advantage."

The AT&T documents filed with the lawsuit described special
deals MCI has made under so-called Tariff 12 and Tariff 15 rules
with, among others, Bank of America, Chrysler Corporation,
Citibank, K-Mart, Caesar's World, Gateway 2000 and Compaq. AT&T
said these companies are being charged rates different from the
rates MCI has on file with the FCC.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19930609/Press Contact: AT&T, Jim Bredeson,
908/221-6632; MCI Press Office, 800-289-0073)


(NEWS)(IBM)(LON)(00019)

UK - Ikon Accounting Launches Icon Plus For Windows 06/09/93
LONDON, ENGLAND, 1993 JUN 6 (NB) -- Ikon Accounting has
announced Ikon Plus, which it claims is a substantially enhanced
and upgraded version of Ikon1, the company's original
accountancy package.

Ikon claims that Ikon Plus is a fully featured, multi-user and
multi-company package that is fully compliant with Microsoft
Windows. The package is pitched at small to medium-sized
businesses.

The Ikon accounting suite of software was developed in a series of
modules which enable the user to upgrade the package easily and
cost-effectively. The modules include sales ledger, purchase ledger,
nominal ledger full stock control and invoicing, as well as a
separate cashbook and VAT (value-added tax) module.

Despite having to stick to modules, the package still claims to
retain all of the Windows features, including the standard toolbar,
pull-down menus, icon menus and Windows help files. The package
has been designed to easily integrate with other Windows
applications, such as Microsoft Excel and Word, using the dynamic
data exchange (DDE) facility.

Pricing on the complete suite of packages has been set at
UKP499 and includes a year's free telephone support.

For potential purchasers, Ikon is offering what it claims is a
unique demonstration version that includes all the software,
plus a "locked" set of demo data. This, Ikon claims, allows
customers to test the features and functions of the software
and, if a purchase is required, they are supplied with a unique
license number that, when entered, unlocks the data for
amendment.

(Steve Gold/19930609/Press & Public Contact: Ikon
Accounting, tel [phone])


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00020)

UK - Visually Impaired To Get Technology Boost 06/09/93
LONDON, ENGLAND, 1993 JUN 9 (NB) -- "Blind in Business," a
not-for-profit organization, has revealed that 80 percent of
visually impaired people are unemployed and only two percent
are actually employed in managerial or professional career
roles.

The Blind in Business Trust was formed as a direct result of
these statistics and is aimed at helping blind and partially-
sighted people achieve successful and challenging careers.

The three people behind the BiB Trust are Neil Heslop, Simon
Meredith and Richard Hanson. Heslop, who lost his sight while at
University, went on to gain a law degree, completing an MBA on
the way, and is now a business planning manager with Northern
Telecom Europe. Meredith is a blind solicitor with Slaughter &
May, while Hanson is a partially-sighted solicitor with Cameron
Markbyewitt.

The principal aims of the charity are to help the visually-impaired
make themselves more employable through access to information
technology (IT), to raise employer awareness of available
technology, training and grants, and to enhance the availability of
all relevant information in this area.

One of the Trust's activities discovered that many schools for the
visually-impaired often had insufficient information technology
equipment. As a result of this discovery, the Trust decided to
target one of the schools and raise funds for a project that would
provide students with continued access to the right technology
throughout their education.

On June 25, the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) will
announce the inaugural Blind in Business project. Newsbytes has
learned that the project centers around ten networked PCs equipped
with speech synthesizers that will be offered to 120 visually-
impaired pupils between the ages of 10 and 18 at the RNIB's New
College Worcester.

(Steve Gold/19930609/Press & Public Contact: Blind in
Business - 071-931-2198)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00021)

UK - RISC-Based Networking Costs Slashed 06/09/93
NEWBURY, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1993 JUN 9 (NB) -- Cabletron
Systems has announced it has cut the cost of its RISC (reduced
instruction-set computing)-based 24 port 10Base-T hubs by as
much as 30 percent.

The price cuts mean that the MRXI-22 and 24 systems, which are
designed to provide advanced management capabilities, including
RMON, to low connectivity areas, are now UKP125 each.

So why the price cuts in what is, after all, not the most
competitive of markets? David Palmer-Stevens, Cabletron's
director of marketing, said that he is seeing customers having to
choose between a low price per port solution or managed solutions.

"With these price changes, Cabletron is offering the most advanced
management at commodity product pricing," he said, adding that,
while putting solutions into remote offices is desirable for
organizations who have several branches that need supporting,
there are usually no skilled engineers to maintain the network.

"Using RISC processors has enabled this task to be automated
by the networking units themselves. We think that major
organizations need the management features and so we are
trying to match their budget constraints," he said.

(Steve Gold/19930609/Press & Public Contact: Cabletron
Systems - Tel: [phone]; Fax: [phone])


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

Scottish Software Duplication Plant Goes On-line 06/09/93
CUMBERNAULD, SCOTLAND, 1993 JUN 9 (NB) -- The first Scottish
plant operated by RR Donnelly, one of the world's leading
duplicators of computer software, has gone live in Scotland. The
Cumbernauld plant will eventually employ more than 120 people.

In the US, the company is perhaps better known as a commercial
printer. In 1992, it claimed to have reached the highest profits
ever in its 129 year history and, in the past three years, has
increased its turnover by 34 percent.

The new UKP2.56 million Scottish facility will make a substantial
contribution to its growing global services and capabilities. The
Cumbernauld plant, which forms just a part of the company's
rapidly growing documentation services operation, provides
customized documentation, assembly and distribution services
for Scotland's computer industry.

The plant covers an impressive 53,000 square-feet and already
employs 25 staff, most of whom were recruited locally. According
to John McClelland, IBM's director of manufacturing and hardware
development at Greenock, and Jim Donnelly, group vice-chairman of
RR Donnelly, the British government was closely involved with the
plant from early on in the project.

A congratulatory letter was sent to the firm by Ian Lang, the
Scottish Secretary of State, who said: "When I met this company's
top management in Chicago last September I was delighted to
conclude negotiations bringing this prestigious company to
Scotland."

"Much has been accomplished since that time and I am pleased
that RR Donnelly is already making a significant contribution
to the supplier infrastructure for the blue-chip electronics and
information technology companies operating in Silicon Glen," he
added.

(Steve Gold/19930609)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00023)

Egghead Earnings Down For FY93 06/09/93
ISSAQUAH, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1993 JUN 9 (NB) -- Software
reseller Egghead Software closed its 1993 fiscal year (FY) with
earnings that were less than half what it posted for FY1992.

The company, which Newsbytes reported recently had realigned
its sales organization to provide additional focus on the small
and medium-sized business market, reported earnings of $6.9
million, or $0.41 per share. That less than half the $15.7 million,
or $0.92 per share in the previous year.

Sales for FY93 were reported up slightly at $725.4 million, a nine
percent gain over the $664.9 million reported for the previous year.
However that gain was somewhat offset by the fact that the
company's FY93 contained 53 weeks. Without the extra week, sales
were up about six percent.

The fourth quarter kept the results from being even lower, with
sales for that period up 26 percent at $195.6 million over the
$155 million reported for the same period of 92. When the extra
week is discounted, sales for this year's fourth quarter were
up 14 percent.

Egghead President Timothy Turnpaugh said the 1993 earnings were
affected by a decline in gross margins as a percentage of sales;
restructuring charges related to the reorganization of the company's
corporate and government sales group; and investments in new
stores, systems, and services to support future growth. Egghead
opened 33 new stores, closed 10, relocated four, and was operating
205 retail outlets at year end. The company plans to open 10 new
retail stores during fiscal 1994.

The company said corporate and government sales increased five
percent when adjusted for the extra week, and it added six new
corporate/government sales offices during the year. Adjusted
results of the company's retail outlets showed an eight percent
increase in sales.

Egghead spokesperson Megan McKenzie told Newsbytes that sales
figures for the company's mail-order operations are included in
the retail sales totals, but said mail-order sales "are a rapidly
growing portion of our business." The company is currently
seeking a senior executive to head up mail-order operations,
and will probably report mail-order sales separately once that
position is filled, she said.

(Jim Mallory/19930609/Press contact: Megan McKenzie,
Egghead Software, 206-391-6266)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00024)

Cray Intros New Fortran Programming Environment 06/09/93
EAGAN, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1993 JUN 9 (NB) --  Cray Research has
announced a new Fortran programming environment the company
says combines the newest version of its Fortran 77 compiler and
the Fortran tools, features and libraries into one simultaneous
release.

Cray Software VP Irene Qualters says the integrated approach to
compiler products give customers full programming environment
support for new languages like C++ and Fortran 90, as well as all
the supporting tools and features more quickly. The company
plans to make all future releases of Cray compilers available in
the same manner.

The company says the new CF77 Programming Environment also
includes support for key Fortran 90 features such as array syntax
and array intrinsics. Qualters says code developed now in the
new language can be compiled by the CF77 environment, allowing
users to start developing Fortran 90 programs in anticipation of
the release of Fortran 90 later this year.

The new product also works in conjunction with the Cray T3D
emulator, a new software tool the company also announced
recently that provides early access to its massively parallel
processing (MPP) programming model. The emulator allows
programmers to develop MPP applications on the current Cray
parallel vector systems.

The CF77 compiler, which Cray says is the main component of the
integrated CF77 Programming Environment, uses advanced parallel
detection techniques to take advantage of the inherent parallelism
of Cray's supercomputers, said the company. The new compiler can
reportedly achieve as much as a 100 percent speedup in running
some code, according to Cray.

The compiler offers both manual and automatic multitasking, a
process that allows Fortran tasks to be spread across multiple
central processing units for overall improved performance.
Manual-insertion multitasking allows more user control and lets
programmers insert directives to gain a greater degree of
parallelism. Automatic tasking, also known as autotasking,
automatically parallelizes a program, without programmer
intervention.

The company says the CF77 Programming Environment also includes
vendor-specific extensions, allowing code developed on other
platforms to run on Cray Research systems with little or no source
code changes. The environment automatically translates data to or
from other internal or proprietary data formats for easier porting
of data from other systems.

The new environment also includes as compilation of X Window
system-based utilities called CrayTools, for debugging, and
performance and source code analysis; scientific libraries that
contain highly optimized routines that provide "building blocks" to
speed high-performance code development; and a library of high
performance input/output routines. Other features include ATexpert,
an expert system that interprets performance data and offers
suggestions to improve code performance, and visual interfaces for
many of the tools which provide easy to understand images for
source code analysis and debugging.

Qualters said the CF77 6.0 Programming Environment is available
for the entire Cray Research product line. Cray compilers
translate code written in standard languages into instructions
understood by its supercomputers without the scientists and
engineers having to have any knowledge of the supercomputer
hardware.

Cray Research spokesperson Mardi Schmieder told Newsbytes
pricing is platform dependent, and starts at $35,000 in the U.S.

(Jim Mallory/19930609/Press contact: Mardi Schmieder, Cray
Research, 612-683-3538)


(NEWS)(IBM)(DEN)(00025)

Zeos Intros New Color Notebook 06/09/93
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1993 JUN 9 (NB) -- Zeos
International has announced a new 486-based color notebook
personal computer that uses Intel's 33 megahertz (MHz) 486SX
microprocessor.

The company says the ColorNote 486 has a backlit screen, an
internal 1.44 megabyte (MB) 3.5-inch floppy drive, and weighs
less than six pounds. The dual scan screen measures 9.4-inches
diagonally, and offers 640 by 480 pixel VGA images. Video
support includes 512 kilobytes (KB) of video RAM.

The ColorNote 486 is powered by a nickel-metal hydride battery
which Zeos says can run the computer for up to three hours on a
single charge. Standard configuration includes four MB of system
memory, which can be expanded to 20MB. A PCMCIA slot is
available for Type 1,2, or 3 PCMCIA devices such as additional
memory, a modem, or a hard drive card. The system ships with
an 80MB hard drive, and drives of 120MB and 180MB are also
available. an 8KB built-in cache, built-in trackball, and 82-key
keyboard are all standard.

Zeos says the ColorNote 486 starts at $2,695. Other options include
DOS 6.0 with Enhanced Tools; Windows 3.1; Lotus Organizer; and a
custom carrying case.

Zeos provides around the clock toll-free technical support, a
one-year limited warranty, and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

(Jim Mallory/19930609/Press contact: Rick Apple, Zeos
International, 612-623-9614; Reader contact: Zeos International,
800-423-5891)


(NEWS)(IBM)(DEN)(00026)

Companies To Intro Microsoft At Work Products 06/09/93
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1993 JUN 9 (NB) -- Several companies
have announced products and services that take advantage of
Microsoft's "Microsoft At Work" technology being announced
in New York City.

Microsoft At Work (MAW) is Bill Gates' technology that is designed
to let all your office products - personal computers, telephones,
copiers, fax machines - talk to each other. Products already being
announced include MAW-based telephones, handheld computers,
digital copiers, and fax machines.

In addition to the specific announcements being released,
Microsoft has published a list of more than 65 companies that say
they will support the MAW technology. The diverse list includes
Sprint, Tokyo Electric Company, Toshiba Corporation, US West
Communications, US Robotics, Wordperfect Corporation, Xerox
Corporation, Hayes Microcomputer Products, Hewlett-Packard,
Intel, MCI International, Minolta, Motorola, NEC, Okidata, AT&T,
Casio Computer Company, Compaq Computer, Data Race, and Bell
Atlantic.

Murata/Muratec, a US independent unit of Japan's Murata Machinery
Company, has announced that it will team up with Microsoft to
bring the MAW technology to the fax market, and expects to have
its first product available in the first half of 1994.

Xerox said that it will work with Microsoft to deliver "a new
generation of documents products and software." The two
companies also said they are collaborating on related business
initiatives which will be announced later. Xerox tried to develop
an office of the future in the 1970's at its Palo Alto Research
Center (PARC), home of many innovative computer developments
in common use today, but found the technology too expensive
at the time.

The most specific product information obtained by Newsbytes by
press time was from Compaq Computer, which said it will launch
a completely new class of products called Mobile Companions"
next year, which will feature mobile communications functions
as well as traditional PC and networking capabilities.

Compaq said the Mobile Companions will give users constant
access to information on their primary PCs by letting them
connect to their computers whether they are in the office or
in the field. The units would be able to recall information from
the primary PC via wired or wireless communications channels,
and would also store personal information such as calendars,
to-do lists, and other notes. They would also be able to act as
an open platform for third-party applications software.

As an example, Compaq says a person attending a meeting would
be able to communicate with the office computer to view a
spreadsheet or a relevant document while the meeting was going
on, or could search for information that could then be downloaded
and printed.

"People often find that the information they create is out of their
reach when they really need it. Business users need the right
information at the right time and place, which is how we will
offer our Mobile Companions," says Compaq VP of Portable and
Software Marketing Lorie Strong.

Northern Telecom said it will roll out a screen-based touch-
sensitive telephones based on the MAW system. Northern Telecom,
in affiliation with Matra Communications already produces liquid
crystal display (LCD) screen-based phones.

Minolta says it will develop a new generation of copiers
and fax machines that use MAW technology, and AT&T EasyLink
says it will develop MAW-based devices that will allow
EasyLink customers o broadcast messages to multiple recipients
with a single command, access a central directory and a variety
of information services such as newspapers and research
databases, communicate with both wired and wireless devices,
and receive software updates automatically.

(Jim Mallory/19930609)


(NEWS)(APPLE)(LAX)(00027)

 ****Apple Announces Lower Earns, Analysts Downgrade 06/09/93
CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 JUN 9 (NB) -- Apple
Computer is telling its stockholders to expect lower earnings
than last year in this second half of its current fiscal year.
The company is blaming price wars, saying its had to cut its
profit margins to stay in the game.

Macintosh unit sales are up thirty-five percent, according to
Apple officials, but Apple is selling the machines for less.
This is a common scenario these days in the computer market
with IBM and other large companies reporting higher unit sales
than ever on personal computers, yet lower profits than before.
In addition, a whopping forty-five percent of Apple's sales are
outside the US.

Apple is banking heavily on its new products. The company
announced more new products in the first half of this year than
in all of fiscal 1992, including a line of Workgroup file
servers. Later this summer, the company has said it will
announce its first personal digital assistant (PDA), the Newton.

Apple is facing stiff competition in the PDA market, however.
American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T) has already delivered EO,
an IBM compatible pen-based system with high screen resolution.
The Zoomer line of PDA's, also IBM compatible, are expected
this fall from Casio and Tandy, who have already announced very
specific details and demonstrated a working Zoomer.

Analysts are downgrading their earnings estimates for Apple.
Standard & Poor's (S&P) is saying Apple's earnings per share
will drop to $4.20 this quarter compared to $4.33 in the year
ago quarter. S&P is sighting a narrower gross margin and higher
research and development costs which offset an estimated seven
percent revenue gain.

The Institutional Brokers Estimate System (IBES), who surveys
over 2,500 financial analysts at 130 brokerage firms reports
overall Apple's earnings estimates have been revised down
23 percent from last week, and 46 percent from four weeks ago.
The 1994 averages for earnings per share have been revised
down 20 percent.

An interesting twist to all this is Apple President John
Sculley's recent admission to several publications, including
Fortune Magazine, that he suggested IBM purchase Apple. Sculley
claims he made the suggestion to the IBM search committee
approached about becoming president of the failing computer
giant.

(Linda Rohrbough/19930609/Press Contact: Bill Slakey, Apple
Computer, tel [phone], fax [phone])


(NEWS)(UNIX)(LAX)(00028)

Framebuilder For HP/Motif 06/09/93
SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 JUN 9 (NB) -- Framebuilder,
an environment for structured document management, is now
available on Hewlett-Packard workstations running the Motif
user interface.

Developed by Frame Technology, the product is described
as a structured authoring environment providing a what-you-see-is-what-
you-get (WYSIWYG) user interface,
"guided editing" to add structure to documents, and support
for the Standard Genetic Markup Language (SGML) import and
export.

The problem is that companies need to interchange documents
throughout organizations and across different enterprises
without losing the structure of the document. The SGML is a
vendor-neutral method for describing document structure and
a syntax for "marking up" the contents of a document.
Frame Technology claims FrameBuilder supports SGML and the
importing and exporting of SGML files without loss of
intelligence, while maintaining document validity during
editing.

Introduced in September 1992, Frame says 40 companies
have committed to FrameBuilder. Philips, Bell Northern
Research and Hewlett-Packard, are listed among the
companies adopting Framebuilder. The company says demand
for the product has been particularly strong in the
pharmaceutical, telecommunications, aerospace, automotive,
and electronics industries.

Framebuilder comes in two parts. The first part is Framebuilder
itself which enables users to create, edit, revise and leverage the
structure of documents. The Framebuilder Developer's Edition is
a set of tools targeted at application developers creating
custom, structured document-based applications. Frame also
offers support, consulting and training services, the company
said.

Licenses for the product on the HP/Motif platform range in
price from $1,995 to $4,995 and volume discounts are available,
the company said. Framebuilder is also available on the Sun
workstation platform.

(Linda Rohrbough/19930609/Press Contact: Steve Jursa,
Copithorne & Bellows for Frame Technology, tel [phone],
fax [phone])


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00029)

Windows & OS/2 Expo Changes Name 06/09/93
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 JUN 9 (NB) -- The
Windows & OS/2 Conference and Exposition, acquired by Miller
Freeman last September, now has a new name - Business
Software Solutions - along with a revised focus.

The first edition of Business Software Solutions will run
concurrently with the next offering of Miller Freeman's seven-
year-old Software Development Conference the week of August
23 to 27 at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston.

In an interview with Newsbytes, Fern Leaf, director of marketing,
said that the new show title reflects an emphasis that has
expanded to accommodate all current GUIs (graphical user
interfaces), as well as any that arise in the future.

"Right now, we're still very much a Windows and OS/2 show," she
told Newsbytes.  "But we've also become strongly positioned to
offer corporate decision makers an objective view of all the
options for desktop software."

Like the Windows & OS/2 conference, Business Software Solutions
is aimed mainly at high-level corporate managers seeking exposure
to the issues facing in-house developers, and at systems integrators.
The Software Development Conference, on the other hand, will
retain its orientation toward in-depth analysis of the technical
issues involved in creating component software for the desktop.

Operating the shows side-by-side, and in the same venue, is a move
meant to ease participation for attendees and vendors alike. The
two conferences will also be run concurrently March 14 through 18
at the San Jose Convention Center in San Jose, CA.

"For the first Business Software Solutions in Boston, we're keeping
a lot of the best things about Windows & OS/2, while adding some
new offerings," Leaf told Newsbytes.

Attractions being held over from the previous show include the Test
Drive Center, Computer Currents' giveaway of $50,000 in software,
and appearances by such popular speakers as Amy Wohl, president of
Wohl Associates; Christine Comaford, president of Corporate
Computing, and Brian Livingston. who heads up Windows Consulting.

New for Business Software Solutions are a separate Multimedia
Test Drive Center, along with the Solutions Showdown Theater, the
Solutions Showcase, and, in the conference arena, several new
faces.

In the Solutions Showdown Theater, vendors will demonstrate the
feature sets of their particular software packages, running
comparisons against competitors' products. In the Solutions
Showcase, systems integrators will show real-world
examples of work performed for business clients.

A few of the new speakers on the Boston agenda are Peter Coffee,
advanced technologies analyst at PC Week; Larry Constantine, co-
founder of Constantine & Lockwood and a specialist in human
interface design; and David Moskowitz, president of Productivity
Solutions and author of the hotly selling book OS/2 2.1 Unleashed.

The 50 conference sessions coming up at Business Software
Solutions are categorized into the following tracks: "Developing
Workplace Solutions," "Training & Supporting End-Users,"
"Connecting the Workplace," "Managing: The Big Picture," and
"Implementing New Products and Technologies."

For its part, the Software Development Conference in Boston will
feature a newly expanded show floor space, along with 150
classes organized into 12 tracks, ranging from "Management and
Organizational Issues" to "Methods and Tools."

The format for the Business Software Solutions/Software
Development Conference in San Jose will be influenced, in part,
by participants' response to the Boston event, said Leaf.

Exhibit space for the combined Boston event is already more than
70 percent sold out, with 250 booths sold.  Attendance is expected
to reach 20,000.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19930609/Press contact:  Gail DeLano,
Sheppard Merrill Communications for Miller Freeman, tel
408-761-1953; Reader contact:  Customer Service, Miller
Freeman, tel [phone])


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(HKG)(00030)

Xircom Brings Nomadic Computing To Asia/Pacific 06/09/93
CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1993 JUN 9 (NB) -- Xircom, the company
that claims to have pioneered portable PC-to-LAN (local area
network) connectivity, has opened its Asia/Pacific headquarters
in Hong Kong.

The local company, Xircom Asia, will supply and support a network
of over 20  distributors throughout the region, and will be
responsible for customizing Xircom products to cater for local
language and system needs. Heading the company will be Scott
Brear, who has been appointed managing director.

"Over the past 2-3 years, Xircom has built solid relationships
with distributor operations throughout the Asia Pacific area,"
said Dirk I. Gates, Xircom's president, CEO and co-founder, who
visited Hong Kong for the opening of Xircom Asia. "We now want
to provide additional resources that will enable these
distributors to deliver enhanced customer service and to develop
new business opportunities.

"By 1996, portable PCs will make up half of all computer
shipments worldwide," he said. "In Asia, where executives travel
constantly and some countries span huge geographical areas, the
portable PC has a special role to play. I expect Xircom Asia to
become our fastest growing operation within the next two years."

Xircom was founded in 1988 to provide systems for connecting
portable PCs to LANs. It adopted the parallel port, until then used
exclusively for printing, as a communications interface and its
Pocket LAN Adapter products have become something of a de
facto standard for portable PC-to-LAN connectivity.

Xircom is currently engaged in a development program aimed at
extending its "nomadic computing" concept to the widest possible
range of users. "Within the past year we introduced our
CreditCard family of LAN adapters based on the PCMCIA standard,
which are designed for new generations of even smaller
computers," said Gates.

"We recently shipped the industry's smallest high- performance
LAN print server and we have an advanced product development
group working on our first cordless LAN products, which we hope
to announce later this year," said Gates. "Our new products will
enable the latest generations of mobile, pen-based and palmtop
computers to become real productivity-enhancing tools."

Brear joins Xircom Asia from General DataComm, where he served
as regional director for the past three years.  Earlier, he spent two
years as managing consultant with Price Waterhouse in Hong Kong,
where he was responsible for the firm's telecommunications
consulting activities and for marketing.

"Portable PCs are among the hottest selling items throughout
Asia right now. The potential for Xircom to help users link their
portables to office networks, and through them to wide area
gateways, must make this one of the most challenging and
rewarding jobs in our industry," said Brear.

(Brett Cameron/19930609/Press Contact: Scott Brear (Xircom),
Tel:[phone];HK time is GMT + 8)