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/NB930712

Text File | 1993-07-13 | 68KB | 1,488 lines

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

Computer-Aided Design Software For Kids Arrives 07/12/93
TORRANCE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 JUL 12 (NB) -- Davidson &
Associates, a company specializing in the development of educational
software, has begun shipping Kid CAD, which it claims is the
computer equivalent of Lego. The company is billing the software as
the first computer-aided design (CAD) package for children.

So, what can children do with CAD software, traditionally used for
architects and engineers? Davidson claims that the package allows
children to design and build almost any type of structure with
electronic building blocks, in much the same way children have
played with snap-together toys for years.

The twist is that the design then becomes a three-dimensional (3D)
virtual environment that can be viewed from different perspectives.
Plants, furnishings, pets, and characters are all available for
addition to the design and children can even add landscaping. When
they're done, kids can "blow up" or otherwise destroy their
creation, just as they could with physical blocks.

Announcing the package, Jan Davidson, president and founder of
Davidson & Associates said: "Kid CAD offers a 3-D virtual
environment that is unparalleled in other software products for
children."

"With just a few mouse clicks, players can select from over a
hundred objects and tools; rotate and paint those objects; zoom in
and out on their creations; and switch from a bird's eye view to
ground level. This ability to manipulate three-dimensional objects
and understand perspective captivates children and encourages their
creativity," he said.

The product features list includes: a zoom feature and multiple
"camera views" for rotating objects; inclusion of several pre-made
shapes and patterns with a simple "point and click" interface to
accomplish most tasks; a set of tools to design any type of
structure, select building materials, choose colors, decorate and
furnish interiors and include characters, animals and plants;
demolition tools such as bombs, bulldozers, laser beams, and lawn
mowers; and animated panoramas for city, town, and farm locations.

When users first come into Kid CAD, they see an animated panorama;
clicking on objects within that screen offers additional animations,
clever sound effects and original music. Kids then say where they
would like to build, a plot of land is made available, and users can
choose from pre-made structures to place on the land or make their
own.

If the child chooses to build a structure, choices of such as
Spanish tile roofs, wood parquet floors, glass blocks, and lots of
different wallpapers, and paints are available to decorate the
structure. In addition, zany patterns -- like popcorn, polka dots,
happy faces and ice cream -- can be applied to anything. A variety
of characters, plants and animals from apple trees to dinosaurs can
be added and the creation can be printed on a black and white or
color printer.

Kid CAD runs under the Microsoft Windows operating system, and
requires Windows version 3.1 in enhanced mode, a minimum of an 80386
microprocessor running at 25 megahertz (MHz), 4 megabytes (MB) of
random access memory (RAM), 9.7 MB of hard disk space and a video
graphics array (VGA) color monitor.

A sound card, such as a Sound Blaster or another Windows-compatible
sound unit, is recommended. The product retails for $49.95 and is
shipping now.

(Linda Rohrbough/19930712/Press Contact: Linda Duttenhaver, Davidson
and Associates, tel [phone] ext 230, fax 310-793-
0601; Public Contact, 310-793-0600)


(NEWS)(APPLE)(MOW)(00002)

No Excuses For Poor Spelling In Russia On The Mac 07/12/93
MOSCOW, RUSSIA, 1993 JUL 12 (NB) -- There are now no excuses for
sloppy spelling on the Mac, as no less than three spell checker
programs were shown at a printing equipment show held in Moscow last
week. The packages are Maximum Text, Orkon and Glyph.

Maximum Text is a package from the Maximum Company, which claims
that the software has a dictionary of 100,000 words. Orkon, a
competing package developed by a team of linguists led by a
professor Belonogov, claims to have a dictionary of 200,000 words.
The third package, Glyph, is from Apcom and has a dictionary of
120,000 words.

All three of the Mac spellcheckers have parallels with early
spelling checkers for the Mac released in the US, since they can
only function with plain text files. This limitation was observed on
Mac spellcheckers in the mid-1980s and, owing to the quirky formats
of several of the Mac's word processors, it took some time for
spelling checkers capable of working directly with WP files to find
their way to market.

Industry observers in Russia say that the appearance of the
spellchecker packages is a sign of the recent development of the Mac
software market in this country. Newsbytes notes, however, that the
"localization" of the Mac is a long and slow process for Russia.

(Kirill Tchashchin/19930712/Press Contact: Maximum, phone +7 095
939-2327; Orkon, phone [phone]; Apcom, phone [phone])


(NEWS)(UNIX)(LON)(00003)

Advanced Micro Research Intros VGA-8 Host Adapter 07/12/93
MAIDENHEAD, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1993 JUL 12 (NB) -- Advanced Micro
Research (AMR) has announced the VGA-8 Host adapter card, a unit
that allows up to 32 simultaneous VGA stations to be linked to a
single Unix host. According to Brian Haynes, the company's European
sales and marketing director, the card is being targeted towards PC
unix integrators.

"User demand is forcing integrators to offer more than alpha-
numeric applications on dumb terminals. There is a shift in the PC
Unix market towards applications that use color and graphics. If
integrators are to stay competitive, they need to offer users I/O
boards and terminals that can run all the latest color and graphics-
based software in the Unix, DOS and Windows worlds," he said.

Backing up his claims, Haynes referred to Dataquest's 1991/92
figures that show that world-wide sales of Multiconsole seats was
24,000, a figure that rose to 79,000 in 1992/93. Dataquest, a market
research company, projects that, by the time 1997 rolls around,
sales will have reached almost 500,000 seats world-wide.

"My view is that PC Unix integrators need a low cost alternative to
the dumb terminal, one which offers the same display and I/O
capabilities as a PC. The world is going graphical but many PC unix
vertical integrators still offer only mono text solutions. Within
the next 12 months, they will find mono ASCII text solutions
increasingly harder to sell," Haynes said.

Standard features on the VGA-8 card include mono/color VGA and SVG
graphics, along with super fast data speeds (to 77 million bits per
second), plus local serial and parallel ports at each user station.
The card itself incorporates support for ASCII, X Windows, MS-
Windows, Alpha Windows, ANSI mono and color and DOS text plus
graphics applications.

Multi-user operating system drivers are available for SCO Xenix,
Unix, ODT, Interactive Unix and, just launched, Unixware from
Univel.

The VGA-8 card is available immediately with a list price of UKP
2,920 for an eight user version. Trade discounts are 30 per cent and
are volume related. A VGA monitor and keyboard are extra.

(Steve Gold/19930712/Press & Public Contact: AMR - Tel: [phone])


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

More Computer-related Products To Use EDRAM 07/12/93
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1993 JUL 12 (NB) -- More
computer-related products will soon be appearing that use a high-
performance memory product.

That's the word from Ramtron International Corporation, the Colorado
Springs, Colorado-based semiconductor memory chip company. Ramtron
said it has signed deals with six customers for its EDRAM (enhanced
dynamic random access memory) chip, an ultra-high performance memory
product that combines the properties of static RAM (SRAM) and
dynamic RAM (DRAM) on a single chip. The result is a chip that
allows for memory access that is twice as fast as any conventional
DRAM chip, the company claims.

The company says that the speed of EDRAM chips makes them ideal for
virtually any high-performance industrial or consumer application.
Some of those applications are expected to be a system from Yarc
Systems that's based on the PowerPC microprocessor recently
introduced by the Apple-Motorola-IBM alliance.

Yarc Systems already uses EDRAM chips in its existing computer
graphics product. "We're so pleased that we're not only building
Ramtron's EDRAM into our existing computer graphics product but are
also integrating EDRAM into another Yarc System product," explained
Trevor Marshall, chief technical officer at the company.

Other applications using the EDRAM chip are expected to include a
portable laptop computer, a CAD (computer aided design) systems
accelerator, a wide-area network controller, and a broadcast
graphics product.

Ramtron declined to disclose the names of the six customers, saying
they had requested anonymity until they are ready to announce their
EDRAM-based systems.

(Jim Mallory/19930712/Press contact: Lee Brown, Ramtron
International, 7189-481- 7011; Reader contact: Ramtron
International, 719-481-7000, fax [phone])


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(SYD)(00005)

OzOrder Helps Apple Supply Its Customers In Australia 07/12/93
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1993 JUL 12 (NB) -- Telecom Plus and Apple
Australia have combined their advanced technologies to develop
OzOrder, a new order processing system that Apple says has enabled
it to provide overnight turnaround of repair parts.

OzOrder was developed as part of Apple's drive to improve its
service to business partners and in turn help them to improve them
service their customers, yet maintaining smaller spare parts
reserves.

According to Bill Hastings, Operations Director at Apple Computer,
repair orders were taking an unacceptably long time to be processed
a couple of years ago, so the company began a two phase project to
speed up orders for both new and exchange parts.

"We began by redesigning our internal processes. For example, we
improved warranty processing by linking serial numbers on machines
to comprehensive database records," he said.

"Then, in phase two, we concentrated on improving the communications
between Apple and our service providers throughout Australia. At
that time, all orders and confirmation notes were being faxed, and
like all paper-bound systems, were vulnerable to error and delay, so
we wanted to develop a remote order processing system," he added.

For this, Apple required an extremely reliable, cost-effective
communications system. They sought the help of Telecom Plus, a
division of the major Australian carrier Telecom (or Telstra,
outside Australia). Telecom Plus provided Apple with its electronic
messaging service, Keylink, which guarantees to be working 99.8
percent of the time. (It also guarantees problem resolution within
four hours).

Apple's Service Operations Manager John Khoo said that this has
revolutionized the system. "Now Apple repair centers simply send
electronic orders via Keylink to the Apple mailbox and this gives
Apple service operations staff the ability to deal with requests
almost until the delivery trucks leave," he said.

Orders are batch-processed on an hourly basis, being handled by
Apple's mainframe using ATFM (Advanced Telecommunications Facilities
Manager) so that human intervention is not needed. Only five percent
of orders actually need human attention.

OzOrder was developed on the Mac using C++MACAPP software to "give
it a traditional Mac feel." Communications costs are claimed to be
less than 70 cents (US) for a typical order.

(Paul Zucker and Niki France/19930712/Contact: Jennie Wright at
Telecom Plus - tel: [phone])


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00006)

Asian Region R&D Spending Patterns Revealed 07/12/93
WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A., 1993 JUL 12 (NB) -- The National Science
Foundation has published a survey of science and technology human
resources for the Asian region; the survey shows surges in research
and development (R&D) spending per researcher for India, Singapore,
and South Korea, compared with steady or falling expenditures in
Taiwan and the US.

Figures for China weren't available before 1990, but, in that year,
Communist China spent $55,000 per researcher, putting the country
just behind India at $57,500 and not very far below the spending
levels in Singapore ($67,000), South Korea ($73,000), or Taiwan
($77,000).

Japan spent $117,000 per researcher in 1990 while the US invested
$136,825 in 1989, the last year reported.

Even more important, is that the US figure has remained almost the
same since 1975, and was never higher than $143,000 back in 1985,
while India's spending has grown by 84 percent since 1976, and South
Korea's R&D monies jumped by 124 percent.

Reflecting this increased expenditure, US patents awarded to Chinese
residents went from one in 1975 to a high of 52 in 1989; in the same
period, Japanese-held patents increased from 6,350 to 20,100 in
1989; Taiwanese-held US patent awards jumped from 23 in 1975 to 731
in 1990; and South Korea's have gone from a low of four in 1979 to
224 in 1990.

The actual number of R&D researchers in various Asian countries
added up to almost the same number as in the US for 1990, but while
the number of US-based researchers has grown by 80 percent from 1975
to 1989, the total percentage increase for all of Asia has been
slightly over 161 percent, not counting China.

This compares with the US, which is now about on a par with the
major Asian countries taken as a whole - the trend, if it continues,
will see the US rapidly falling behind over the next few years.

When we consider the total ratio of researchers compared to the
entire workforce, in both the US and Japan there are about 75
workers involved in R&D for every 10,000 total workers.

Perhaps the most distressing numbers disclosed by this research
are that the US lags far behind China, Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan
in the percentage of college degrees awarded in science and
engineering, compared to the total number of bachelor's degrees
awarded to each country's citizens.

This means that, for instance, there are more than twice as many
science and engineering degrees awarded per Japanese college
graduate than US college graduate, despite the fact that many of
these Asian students are graduating from US colleges and
universities.

Data referred to in this Newsbytes report is taken from "Human
Resources for Science and Technology: The Asian Region, NSF 93-303."
A free copy of the 140-page report can be ordered from the National
Science Foundation at 703-644-4278 (fax), or e-mail a request to
[e-mail] on the Internet.

(John McCormick/19930712)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00007)

Media Vision Unveils Two Multimedia Upgrade Systems 07/12/93
LONDON, ENGLAND, 1993 JUL 12 (NB) -- Media Vision has launched two
high-performance multimedia upgrade kits: the Fusion Double CD 16
and the Pro 16 Multimedia System. The company claims that the two
kits will allow PC users to run high performance multimedia
applications.

Both kits are compatible with the Multimedia PC (MPC) marketing
council's recently-introduced MPC Level 2 specification. This states
that the minimum specs for a Level 2 multimedia PC are 16-bit sound,
a double-speed CD-ROM (compact disc read only memory) drive and
multi-session Photo CD capabilities.

Both the kits include Media Vision's Pro Audiospectrum 16-bit sound
card with a double speed CD-ROM drive. Paul Jain, Media Vision's
president, claims that the company is active supporter of the MPC
marketing council.

"This new specification represents the council's recognition of the
market's enhanced expectation for multimedia performance," he said,
adding that the company will continue to adhere to market standards
in future product releases.

The Fusion Double CD 16 upgrade kit includes a Pro Audiospectrum 16
sound card, plus a double-speed CD-ROM drive and four bundled discs,
including Virgin's The 7th Guest. The Pro 16 kit, meanwhile,
includes the Pro Audiospectrum 16 sound card, a double-speed NEC
84JD01 CD-ROM drive, eight discs and MIDI sequencing software.

The Fusion Double CD kit costs UKP 599, while the Pro 16 Multimedia
costs UKP 799. Both kits are available immediately through Media
Vision's distributors in the UK -- Ingram Micro, Gem and Omnimedia.

(Steve Gold/19930712/Press Contact: For Media Vision - SMI -
Tel: [phone])


(NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00008)

 ****Three New Ambra PCs Launched In Canada 07/12/93
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1993 JUL 12 (NB) -- Expercomp Service, an
IBM Canada subsidiary that sells Ambra PCs in Canada, has unveiled
three new Sprinta machines based on IBM's 50-megahertz (MHz) 486SLC2
processor.

Launched in June, 1992, the SLC2 microprocessor uses clock-doubling
technology and has power-management features and an internal 16K-
byte cache. According to Expercomp, the new machines are available
with a choice of hard drives, monitors, memory configurations, and
bundled software.

Customers can choose 2, 4, 8 or 16 megabytes (MB) of memory and an
85MB, 170MB, or 240MB hard disk, explained Bobby Hsieh, marketing
manager at Expercomp. There is also a choice of VGA, Super VGA, or
Ultra VGA low-radiation monitors.

The standard software bundle that comes with the machines includes
the DOS operating system, Version 6.0, plus Microsoft Windows 3.1
and Microsoft's Works for Windows integrated software. Lotus
Organizer, a personal information manager, is also included except
with the cheapest configuration, a machine with 2MB of memory and an
85MB hard drive.

Those who buy the new Sprinta with at least 8MB of memory
and a 240-MB hard drive can also choose IBM's OS/2 operating
system, Version 2.1, in place of DOS and Windows, Hsieh said.

The new PCs are due to be available in stores by the end of July,
Expercomp officials said. Sample list prices are: C$1,599 for a
machine with 2MB of memory, an 85MB hard disk, and a VGA monitor;
C$1,999 for one with 4MB of memory, 170MB drive, and a Super VGA
monitor; and C$2,399 for a Sprinta with 8MB of memory, a 240MB hard
drive, and a Super VGA monitor.

Expercomp has also announced that all Ambra PCs are now covered by
IBM HelpWare, a lifetime support service offered by the parent
company.

(Grant Buckler/19930712/Press Contact: Kate Jobling, Goodman
Communications for Expercomp, 416-924-9100, fax [phone];
Bobby Hsieh, Expercomp, 416-946-4158)


(NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00009)

Spinnaker To Market Green Thumb's LandDesigner Software 07/12/93
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1993 JUL 12 (NB) -- Spinnaker
Software has named Green Thumb Software's LandDesigner the second
member of its Affiliated Labels Program, a move that will bring the
PC-based residential landscape design software into the retail
channel for the first time.

The new partnership program from Spinnaker gives other software
companies the chance to market their products on a broad scale
through Spinnaker's well established retail channel, national sales
force, and Power Up catalog, according to Dan Chmielewski, a
Spinnaker spokesperson.

The first entry in the partnership program, the myHouse home design
package from DesignWare, topped the Ingram Micro June 1993 best
seller's list for retail products in the graphics category.

"Stemming from the success of the myHouse program, we're discovering
that there's a substantial market for home applications software.
We're hoping LandDesigner mirrors this success," commented Dale
Weideman, director of the Affiliated Labels Program.

As home applications products, LandDesigner and myHouse are strong
complements to Spinnaker's personal productivity software for home
offices and small businesses, he added.

LandDesigner is a Computer Aided Design (CAD) software package aimed
at letting home users quickly and easily create complete landscaping
plans. Users can design gardens, lawn areas, walkways, and sprinkler
systems covering up to 170 acres.

"This agreement marks the first time LandDesigner will be available
in the general retail channel. With the power and savvy of
Spinnaker's established sales force behind it, LandDesigner should
soon be readily available to customers all over the US," noted Judy
McNary, president of Green Thumb.

Plans call for Spinnaker to market LandDesigner through 15,000
retail outlets, as well as through PowerUp, a catalog with an annual
circulation of 10 million. LandDesigner will also be made available
to Spinnaker's PC OEM partners.

LandDesigner is priced at $89. Use of the package requires an 80286-
based IBM-compatible PC or higher, a VGA or EGA graphic card,
1MB of RAM, a hard disk, and a mouse.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19930712/Public contact: Green Thumb, tel 800-336-
3127; Dealer contact: Spinnaker, tel [phone]; Press contacts:
Dan Chmielewski, Spinnaker, tel [phone], ext 458; Jane
Rubinstein, Green Thumb: tel [phone])


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00010)

Softbank CD-ROM Marketing Firm Offers First Disc 07/12/93
SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A. (NB) -- In an increasingly competitive
software industry, vendors are seeking new ways to distribute
products. Now four companies involved in the distribution and direct
marketing of software have announced the creation of a new company,
called Softbank Inc., that will market a CD-ROM containing multiple
software products, called "Softbank On-Hand."

Softbank, Merisel Computer Products, Phoenix Technologies, and
Alexander & Lord are the firms involved in the joint venture. The
company says it will begin shipping its first Softbank On-Hand
Software Library CD-ROM disc set, bundled with computers and
multimedia upgrade products, this fall.

The company claims that the On-Hand Library enables users to
"desktop shop" for software and other products without having to go
to a store. They simply call a toll-free number to obtain a code to
"unlock" actual software programs from the CD-ROM disc.

The On-Hand Library will reportedly include interactive product
advertisements, demos, and "hundreds" of purchasable software titles
organized in an "interactive multimedia interface."

The library also includes a variety of free software. Users who
obtain the free On-Hand Library may also subscribe to a monthly
series of CD-ROM discs containing news, features, interactive
multimedia ads, additional free software, and additional new
software titles that can be purchased.

The Softbank On-Hand Software Library runs under Windows 3.1 on
80386 or 80486-based PCs with multimedia-compatible CD-ROM drives
and sound capabilities.

Announcing the new CD-ROM, David Blumstein, president and CEO of
Softbank, said: "Softbank On-Hand is a fundamentally easier
and more efficient way to buy software because it lets people try
and compare software before they buy it. We're catering to the
growing desire of users to shop from home or office."

However, the company claims that traditional software retailers
are not cut out of the loop, as original equipment manufacturers
(OEMs), distributors, and retailers who distribute the Softbank
On-Hand Library bundles receive a percentage of revenue from
products sold.

(Ian Stokell/19930712/Press Contact: Margaret Tuttle, 408-655-6000,
Softbank)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00011)

Seikosha Intros Speedjet 300 Inkjet Printer 07/12/93
SLOUGH, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1993 JUL 12 (NB) -- Seikosha has
announced the Speedjet 300, a 300 characters per second (CPS) inkjet
unit that it claims works to letter quality (LQ) standards.

According to the company, the unusually high speed is achieved by
using a new high-capacity 128 nozzle ink jet print head capable of
printing 2.4 times more characters in a given space than established
50 nozzle heads can manage.

This translates into a much faster print speed -- twice as fast as
the HP Deskjet 500/510 series and the Epson Stylus 800, its primary
competition in the inkjet stakes. Even better, Seikosha claims that
the printer runs for just 1.3 pence per page.

The design flexibility of the new printer is impressive, including
standard fonts such as Dutch 801, Proportional Letter Gothic and
Courier in various styles. These fonts can be printed in either
vertical or horizontal formats, as well as in various widths as a
print resolution of 300 x 300 dots per inch (DPI).

As supplied, the Speedjet comes with a print buffer of 24K, with
optional 128 and 256K cards available if required. According to
Gareth Cornish, Seikosha' general sales manager, the printer can
connect with any PC using the standard parallel or the optional
serial port.

The Speedjet 300 is available immediately at a retail price of UKP
359. Optional on-site warranty is available for an extra UKP 20.

(Steve Gold/19930712/Press & Public Contact: Seikosha UK - Tel:
0753-685873; Fax: [phone])


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00012)

Canadian Product Launch Update 07/12/93
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1993 JUL 12 (NB) -- This regular feature,
appearing every Monday or Tuesday, provides further details for the
Canadian market on announcements by international companies that
Newsbytes has already covered. This week: new SPARCstations and
Apple price cuts.

Sun Microsystems of Canada joined its US parent in unveiling three
new workstations in its SPARC line (Newsbytes, July 5). The new
SPARCstation 10TurboGXplus workstations are priced C$2,200 about the
basic system prices of comparable SPARCstation 10 machines, starting
at about C$33,000. The SPARCstation ZX basic system is priced at
C$29,000, and the SPARCstation 10ZX starts at C$41,700.

On Friday, Apple Canada joined its US parent in announcing price
cuts on PowerBook notebook computers and Macintosh Quadra systems.
PowerBook price cuts in Canada range from five to 16 percent,
affecting PowerBook 145B, 160, 165c, 180, and 180c models.

Apple also cut the price of a Quadra 950 with 8 megabytes (MB) of
memory and a 230MB hard disk by 25 percent, from C$8,080 to C$6,090,
and that of the same machine with a one-gigabyte hard disk by 20
percent, from C$9,990 to C$8,000.

(Grant Buckler/19930712/Press Contact: Michael Douglas, Sun
Microsystems of Canada, 416-477-6745; Franca Miraglia, Apple
Canada, 416-513-5511; Public Contact: Apple Canada, 800-263-3394)


(NEWS)(IBM)(SYD)(00013)

Australian Software Products To Feature At Melbourne Show 07/12/93
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1993 JUL 12 (NB) -- The Sydney branch of
the Australian Software Publisher's Association (ASPA) has signed
four new high profile, pioneering Australian software publishers.
Plans call for ASPA to promote the company's products at the PC93
computer show, which takes place in Melbourne next month.

According to ASPA president Steve Goschnik, the new members put a
better national balance on the group. The new members are: Corporate
Workgroup Resources (publishers of Talking Windows communications
package); TypeQuick (a typing tutor); Odyssey Development (Isys text
retrieval); and Custom Made Software (accounting and personal
management software).

The new members' packages which will be shown at the August OC93
show are: Windows TypeQuick; Windows Isys; Ed for Windows version 2;
POWRRR CHART/VB programming tool for Visual Basic; Graphic Gallery
II and a $5 software postcard called "Greetings from Australia";
WordQuest for Windows (primary school education package); version 3
of the Murrembeena Network System; InspectA archiving software;
multi-user version of Letter Magic and so on.

(Paul Zucker/19930712/Contact: Steve Goschnick, ASPA phone +61-3-754
4377 or fax [phone])


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00014)

Kerridge Network Systems Unveils PC ISDN Card 07/12/93
NEWBURY, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1993 JUL 12 (NB) -- Kerridge Network
Systems has launched the Micro-I, an integrated services digital
network (ISDN) half card for PCs. The card, which costs UKP 799, is
available immediately.

According to the company, the half-length PC card is designed for
use with British Telecom's ISDN-2 service, which BT is actively
promoting.

ISDN-2, which is available across 70 percent of the UK, offers two
64,000 bits per second (bps) and one 16,000 bps data channel to ISDN
standards. The service does not support the Basic Rate Access (BRA)
features of ISDN, which has caused some users to criticise ISDN-2 as
being only a compromise solution. BRA allows advanced features to be
added to the ISDN service.

The Micro-I card, however, is designed to interface a PC directly to
the ISDN network. The card will support 64,000 bits per second per
channel data transfers and can even drive both channels on an ISDN-2
line, using asynchronous data on one channel and synchronous data on
the other -- no mean feat in anyone's datacomms book.

The MIcro-I card can operate as a direct replacement for a modem,
controlled by the usual "Hayes" command set. Alternatively, it can
be configured as a single channel X.25 packet assembler,
disassembler (PAD) allowing access from the ISDN network into a
corporate data network.

X.25 is the communications standard used by packet data networks
(PDNs) around the world to link disparate data environments. The
X.25 protocol, a standard agreed by the CCITT, the international
telecoms regulatory body, allows data from these disparate
environments to be moved across a PDN, almost regardless of its
original state. The X.25 standard means that data is "parcelled up"
into chunks and then re-assembled in its original form at the other
end of the link.

This is important, for example, where binary data is to be moved
across a PDN. Ordinary data links would freeze up as the eight-bit
data is interpreted as control characters. Over an X.25 link,
however, the discrete nature of the packets of data would mean that
the contents would be ignored, with only the packet address details
interpreted by the network.

Announcing the budget "do it all" ISDN card, Yuri Pasea, Kerridge's
Business Development Director, said that ISDN is the way of the
future. "We're firm believers that ISDN is the next dynamic growth
path in the field of datacomms, hence our focus on the ISDN area,"
he said.

What's interesting about the Micro-I, Newsbytes notes, is that it
supports Kerridge's own Synclink terminal emulation system, which
includes 3270, 5250, C03, X.32 (X.25) and 3780 standards. The
ability to handle such a wide variety of standards means that the
card can be used in a variety of situations that might otherwise
require the use of dedicated (and expensive) hardware.

(Steve Gold/19930712/Press & Public Contact: Kerridge Network
Systems - Tel: [phone]; Fax: [phone])


(NEWS)(IBM)(DEN)(00015)

Primera Printer Gets Dye Sublimation, Thermal Transfer 07/12/93
EDEN PRAIRIE, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1993 JUL 12 (NB) -- Fargo
Electronics has announced an upgrade kit for its Primera color
printer for Windows that adds dye sublimation and thermal transfer
technology to the unit.

According to Fargo's vice president of sales and marketing, Mark
Strobel, the product is unique because, until now, wax thermal
transfer printers have been marketed separate from dye sublimation
printers. "They're two totally different models in people's product
lines," he said. The new upgrade kit for the Primera incorporates
both technologies in a single printer.

Strobel claims that the ability to print high-quality photos on
either white photo receptor paper or overhead transparency film
differentiates the Primera printer from its competitors. "This is
a capability unique to thermal transfer technology. No matter how
much you pay, you'll never be able to print photographs with quality
anywhere close to this on in jet color printer," he said.

The company claims that installing the upgrade kit is easy. The user
installs the printer driver for the Primera printer then selects an
additional selection for "photo." To print, put photo receptor paper
in the feeder, install a dye-sublimation ribbon, and the Primera is
ready to go.

According to Fargo, the new technology can save both time and money,
because the same printer is used to print proofs via was thermal
transfer at about $0.45 per page. Once the user is satisfied with
the image, he or she removes the thermal was transfer ribbon and
inserts the dye-sublimation ribbon, clicks on "Photo" and gets the
final print. Strobel says the process is less expensive because the
user doesn't have to print a series of more expensive photo prints
before arriving at the desired result.

The cost of the Primera and the Photo-Realistic Upgrade Kit is just
under $1,250. In use, it works with any IBM-compatible PC that can
run Microsoft Windows. Users who utilize photo software packages and
want to print images stored on CD-ROM's or on Kodak's Photo CD disks
(which require a special CD ROM drive) or those who use a service
bureau to get their color prints, will be particularly attracted to
the Primera with the upgrade kit. By itself the upgrade kit costs
$249.95, and Fargo estimates prints can be made for about $3.00
each.

The company plans to start shipping the upgrade kit in mid-July, and
later this month will introduce a $199.95 Quickdraw driver and
interface for Apple Computer's Macintosh that also works with an
off-the-shelf Primera printer and the Photo-Realistic Upgrade Kit.

(Jim Mallory/19930712/Press contact: Dee Anna McPherson, S&S Public
Relations for Fargo Electronics, 708-291-1616)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00016)

Vodafone Adds GSM Roaming Agreements Across Europe 07/12/93
NEWBURY, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1993 JUL 12 (NB) -- Vodafone has
announced it has signed bilateral agreements with SIP of Italy and
SFR of France for their respective GSM digital mobile phone
subscribers. The agreements will allow users of the Vodafone, SIP
and SFR GSM networks to make and receive calls on the other
countries' mobile phone networks.

GSM stands for Groupe Speciale Mobile, sometimes referred to as
Global System for Mobile telephony. The system is an advanced
digital mobile phone system that uses the latest technology to
ensure crystal clear phone calls, as well as the ability to move
data over the network without the need for a modem.

Since the networks are all-digital, data passing from a phone to the
network can easily be routed between countries over PDNs (packet
data networks) or similar. Call authorizations can be similarly
routed, meaning that a UK GSM subscriber trying to use his or her
phone in, say, Italy, will find the connection going through as
quickly as normal.

The Italian GSM network, before allowing the call, would have
quickly checked the status of the subscriber with the UK GSM network
over a PDN link. Once the call is completed, call details are passed
to the UK operator for billing.

Vodafone has also signed roaming agreements with Teledanmark Mobil,
one of Denmark's two GSM networks, as well as with Televerket, one
of Sweden's three GSM operators. These agreements complete
Vodafone's agreements with the other operators in Denmark and
Sweden, Newsbytes notes.

Chris Gent, managing director of Vodafone, said that he is delighted
to have reached commercial agreements with SIP and SFR to allow
inter-network subscriber roaming.

"Subscribers to our digital services can now roam throughout the
major markets of Western Europe. In addition, we are making good
progress in our discussions with other GSM operators throughout
Europe and expect to complete further roaming arrangements in the
near future," he said.

(Steve Gold/19930712/Press & Public Contact: Vodafone - Tel: 0635-
33251; Fax: [phone])


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00017)

Compaq In Joint Venture To Build PCs In China 07/12/93
HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1993 JUL 12 (NB) -- Compaq Computer
Corporation has entered into a joint venture with a Beijing,
People's Republic of China-based organization to form a
manufacturing equity joint venture to build Compaq PCs.

Compaq signed a letter of intent July 9 with Beijing Stone (Group)
Corporation. The 11-year joint venture calls for Compaq to lease and
manage an existing Stone facility to manufacture printed circuit
boards and perform final product assembly of Compaq desktop
computers.

Company spokesperson John Sweney told Newsbytes that the factory
will have one CPU and three printed circuit board assembly lines.
Compaq expects to hire about 200 employees from the Beijing labor
pool for the 40,000 square foot facility. Production is expected to
begin in December.

Sweney said that the managing director has not yet been named for
the Shenzhen operation, but based on other Compaq subsidiaries, it will
probably be a local individual if a qualified person can be located.
The board of directors will be composed of four Compaq
representatives and one Stone nominee.

Compaq President and CEO Eckhard Pfeiffer said that the Chinese
market-place "represents a tremendous opportunity for Compaq."

According to Pfeiffer, the joint venture with Stone will solidify
Compaq's position in the emerging Chinese market. The Beijing
facility will be Compaq's 25th world-wide subsidiary.

Compaq first entered the Chinese market on a limited basis in 1984,
and as Newsbytes reported became fully active there in 1990.
According to research firm IDC Compaq holds an 18.5 percent market
share in value and 16.3 percent in units shipped. Compaq operations
in China are managed through the company's North Asia subsidiary in
Hong Kong.

Last November Newsbytes reported the company had established the
Tsinghua University Training Center in Beijing, investing $1 million
in a partnership with Computerland China and Eekon Computer Systems.

The training center offers training in hardware architecture,
operating systems, networking and computer applications for users in
the government, private industry, institutions and the general
public.

(Jim Mallory/19930712/Press contact: John Sweney, Compaq Computer
Corporation, 713-374-1564; Reader contact: Compaq Computer
Corporation, 713-370-0679 or 800-345-1518)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00018)

Lotus Offers Universal Vouchers For Upgrades 07/12/93
STAINES, MIDDLESEX, ENGLAND, 1993 JUL 12 (NB) -- Confused by the
plethora of upgrade offers available for Lotus' software? No need to
be, as Lotus has unveiled a "Universal Upgrade Scheme," which it
claims was designed expressly to avoid any confusion.

The scheme relates to four new products -- The Smartsuite Trade-up
Pack, the Tradeup Pack, the Upgrade Pack and the Education Pack.
Each claims to offer software resellers a more convenient and risk-
free method of upgrading customers while keeping profit margins up.

According to Lotus, the customer gains as well, because s/he can be
sure that they are getting the best available deal, rather than
having to pore through the adverts for the best published deal on a
package.

In the past, it's been possible to buy a little-known version of a
package and then upgrade at low cost. This has meant that other
buyers of later versions of the package have lost out on such deals.
Under the Universal Upgrade Scheme, customers will be offered the
best available deal, regardless if where they buy their upgrade
from.

To promote the scheme, Lotus is embarking on a national advertising
campaign in the UK. The packs will use a new Lotus Gold packaging,
clearly identifying what they are to potential buyers. Jeremy Wray,
Lotus UK's marketing manager said that the upgrade scheme is a lot
better for dealers and customers.

"In the past few years we've seen a number of different approaches
to selling upgrades, from taking them in-house to setting up
entirely new companies to handle them. None have pleased the
publisher, reseller and customer. We believe that we can now offer
the right combination of simplicity of administration to the
reseller and universal availability to our customers," he said.

So how does it all work? Simple, says Lotus. Customers wanting to
upgrade or trade up can simply buy the appropriate pack from their
reseller. Inside the package is a voucher, plus instructions. The
customer fills out the voucher and returns it to Lotus with the
required proof of ownership of the earlier version of the software.

By return, the reseller gets a copy of the latest version of the
software. This also qualifies him/her for 90 days free technical
support. The advantage is that the customer can buy his/her upgrade
through the computer dealer, yet still get the latest version from
Lotus.

(Steve Gold/19930712/Press & Public Contact: Lotus Development -
Tel: [phone])


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00019)

 ****Bell Canada Poised To Launch Portable Phone Numbers 07/12/93
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1993 JUL 12 (NB) -- Bell Canada is getting
ready to launch a portable phone number service in Toronto that will
let subscribers have their phone calls follow them wherever they go.
The company is only awaiting approval from federal regulators to
begin the service, which it calls PrimeLine Executive.

The service, which Bell hopes to extend to Montreal, Quebec City,
Ottawa, and neighboring Hull, Quebec, by the end of the this
year, would be the first such offering in Canada, Bell officials
said.

For C$14.95 per month, any business or residential customer would
get a special telephone number that is not tied to any one
telephone. By calling a special number, the subscriber would be
able to use a touch-tone telephone keypad to identify him or
herself and then tell the phone system where to send calls.

Subscribers would be able to pre-schedule regular shifts in how
their calls are directed, explained company spokesman Geoff
Matthews. They could, for instance, tell the system that calls
should go to a home phone number until 7:00 a.m., then to a car
phone from 7:00 until 8:30, and then to an office phone.

They could also vary the routine as needed, and send calls all
over the world if desired. A subscriber could have calls to his
or her Toronto number directed to a hotel room in Switzerland if
desired, Matthews said. As is normal with diverted calls, the caller
would continue to pay local or trunk charges for the main call, with
the recipient picking up the tab for excess charges incurred.

Bell plans to extend the service throughout the provinces of
Ontario and Quebec eventually, Matthews said, but cannot provide
a detailed timetable.

The package will include some call-screening features and will
allow customers to add a pager or voice-messaging function.

Company officials said they had hoped to have the service
available July 12, but are still awaiting approval from the
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
(CRTC). Service will start as soon as the CRTC gives the green
light, Matthews said.

In 1992, Bell conducted an eight-month trial of portable phone
number services in Ottawa and Hull, offering the main components
of the PrimeLine Executive service under the names Find-Me and
Follow-Me.

(Grant Buckler/19930712/Press Contact: Geoff Matthews, Bell
Canada, 416-353-8138; Sandra Cruickshanks, Bell Canada,
416-581-4205)


(NEWS)(IBM)(LAX)(00020)

 ****Intel Income Up 167 Percent, Employee Bonus $48 Mil 07/12/93
SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 JUL 12 (NB) -- Intel, known
for its leadership in microprocessor chips for IBM and compatible
PCs, has revealed that second quarter net income has risen a
whopping 167 percent over the same a year ago.

Revenue for the quarter was $2.13 billion, up from the $1.32 billion
one year ago and net income is reported at $569 million or $1.30 per
share, compared with the $213 million or $.50 per share of a year
ago.

The company says it has already exceeded in the first half of
this year, what it earned all year last year. For the first six
months of 1993, revenue of $4.15 billion was up 62 percent from
$2.56 billion a year ago, and net income jumped 181 percent to
$1.12 billion or $2.53 per share, vs. $397 million or 93 cents
per share.

The per-share amounts reported have been restated to reflect
the 2-for-1 stock split effective May 6, 1993. Intel said the
split was a psychological move as it appeared investors thought
the company's stock prices couldn't go any higher and the price
mysteriously started to fall.

Shipments of the latest 80486 and the new Pentium microprocessors are
credited with the gains, according to Andrew Grove, Intel's
president and chief executive officer. "Thanks to great performance
by our factories, we have been able to increase our Intel486
processor shipments very rapidly. We're now in a position to meet
demand for most versions of the Intel486 family, while also ramping
Pentium processor shipments," he said.

As a reward to Intel employees, the company said it will pay out
approximately $48 million in its Employee Cash Bonus Program.
Intel's 27,500 employees world wide will receive bonuses for the
first six months totaling 11.4 days pay.

Intel said it exceeded its goal of shipping 10,000 Pentium
processors in the quarter, and expects to ramp production of the
product aggressively in the third quarter. ALR, in an announcement
made last Thursday, is the first to begin shipping Pentium-based PCs
and other companies are expected to rapidly follow suit.

To meet demand for its microprocessor products, Intel announced at
the beginning of this month it would add a fifth building and 750
jobs at its Folsom, California site for research and development.

The company also announced a $1 billion expansion of its
manufacturing facilities in Rio Rancho, New Mexico.

Intel is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.

(Linda Rohrbough/19930712/Press Contact: Gordon Casey, Intel,
tel [phone], fax [phone])


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00021)

Antiquated Computer Blamed For Police Delay In SF Killings 07/12/93
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 JUL 12 (NB) -- San Francisco
officials are blaming an antiquated computer system and a shift
change for a four-minute delay in dispatching police units to a
skyscraper where a gunman killed eight people and wounded six others
last week.

"Equipment, absolutely equipment, that's what I feel was at fault
here" Lt Bruce Lorin said. Lorin is in charge of the police
department's internal investigation into possible police foul-ups
related to the incident.

Police computer records show that the initial call for help was
received July 1 by a 911 operator st 2:57:57 PM. The call was
received as "a man with a gun" at the skyscraper located at 101
California street.

But according to press reports, Lorin said that his office gets ten
such calls a day. Lorin has told reporters that the dispatcher felt
more information was needed before dispatching officers. One minute
later, a second call, requesting an ambulance, was received and
routed to paramedics, who responded.

At that point the police dispatchers changed shifts, and the new
dispatcher was told that the gunman was locked in a fire stairway.
Two minutes later, at 3:02 PM, the first police cars were dispatched
to the scene.

San Francisco Police Chief Tony Ribera said that the delay in
dispatching was more than he would like to see in responding to a
shooting with victims. "I would like to see us get rolling to a
report like this as soon as possible."

However, the four-minute delay in dispatching the first police unit
may not have mattered in the number of victims. Police now say the
suspect, 55-year old Gianluigi Ferri, allegedly did all of his
killing in the first four minutes after he opened fire in a law
office then roamed two other floors of the building firing machine
pistols.

Ferri, reportedly a mortgage broker from Los Angeles who was having
financial difficulties, started his shooting spree in the law
offices of Pettit & Martin because he was upset about the handling
of a 10-year old real estate deal.

Ferri allegedly shot himself about 75 minutes after the incident
started, after being trapped in a stairwell by a police SWAT
(special weapons and tactics) team.

(Jim Mallory/19930712/Press contact: Inspector Lamont Suslow, SFPD,
415-553-1101)


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

Bell Company Update 07/12/93
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1993 JUL 12 (NB) -- It's a continuing,
uphill battle, but regional Bell companies appear to be winning
their fights to enter the long distance business and get more
control over their own rates from state legislatures. The success is
reflected in the companies' stock prices, most of which are near
record highs, despite high capitalizations and rate regulation which
should make such progress difficult.

In the Southwest, Southwestern Bell won the right from the
Federal Communications Commission to link its Frame Relay service
to long distance networks. This means it can offer digital lines
of 56,000 bps to 1.544 million bps on-demand to businesses
throughout in Texas, Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma.

Frame Relay is an economical alternative to leased lines
presently used by most businesses for their fast data needs,
because Frame Relay lets you connect to multiple points, as you
need the connections, without having to re-engineer your network.

Southwestern Bell is offering businesses in its five-state region
three speeds -- 56,000 bps, 384,000 bps and 1.544 million bps --
although Frame Relay standards allow for short "bursts" of data
to be transmitted at much higher speeds than those ratings.

In the Upper Midwest, Ameritech is fighting with Allnet, a small
long distance provider covering the same territory, over its
right to enter the long distance market, and the rules governing
such entry.

Allnet is concerned that Ameritech wants to deny it the same access
to the Ameritech network, and the same prices, that Ameritech wants
to give itself. The arguments involve such things as "intraLATA
equal access," which means access to phone company facilities within
an urban area, even if that area covers more than one state, like
the New York metro area.

Earlier this year, Ameritech asked for permission to enter the long
distance market in exchange for giving competitors "equal access" to
its facilities, and the complex rule-making now taking place before
the FCC will be important in setting the rules for that access.

In Pennsylvania, meanwhile, Bell Atlantic's Pennsylvania Bell
unit won a major legislative victory when acting governor Mark
Singel signed a law which will let it ask for some rates to be
deregulated in exchange for its promise to replace copper with
fiber in its network by the year 2015.

Under the law, regulators' failure to act on a rate hike request
within 9 months will put the new rates into automatic effect.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19930712/Press Contact: Roy Morris, Allnet,
202-293-0593; Scott Hilgeman, Southwestern Bell, 314-247-4613;
Eric Raabe, Bell Atlantic, 215-466-5611)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(TYO)(00023)

 ****Computers Set To Control Tokyo Cars Into Next Century 07/12/93
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1993 JUL 12 (NB) -- The Japanese Ministry of
Construction has unveiled what it claims will be the next generation
car traffic system. The technology, which is expected to allow Tokyo
traffic to enter the next century without any worries of gridlock,
is based around (you guessed) a computer.

Under the new technology, plans call for radio wave conduits to be
laid along the streets of Tokyo. These conduits feed back to
regularly-sited base stations, from which radio-based control
signals for each car will be transmitted.

The idea is quite radical, since it involves an onboard car computer
making decisions on where to steer, how fast to go and when to shift
gears and brake, based on input from its sensors, the controlling
radio waves and, optionally, the human driver.

Before you freak out at the thought of turning control of your
100mph-plus car over to a few slivers of silicon, the Ministry has
pointed out that the plan will be implemented in three stages.

The first stage involves the car signalling, by means of a buzzer or
red light, when it is in danger of becoming involved in a road
accident. The second stage will involve the car being equipped with
an automatic braking system that is triggered by the base stations.

Only when everything is complete and correct will the third stage be
implemented. The idea behind the project is to cut down on the
number of road traffic accidents occurring in Japan. According to
the MInistry, there were 11,451 people killed on the roads last
year.

Once the new system is installed in around 50 percent of cars on
Tokyo's roads, this death toll could be reduced by as much as 3,000
people a year.

The Ministry estimates that the technology necessary to implement
stage one of the project will take around 10 years to perfect, so,
for the time being, they suggest we view it as an expert
navigational system rather than a computer control system for cars.

(Masayuki Miyazawa/19930712)


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

Aldus Announces Freehand Joint Marketing Deal 07/12/93
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1993 JUL 12 (NB) -- Aldus Corporation
has announced plans to offer joint promotions in the US and  Canada
for its graphic design and illustration software Aldus Freehand
3.11 and Ray Dream's addDdepth, a Postscript 3D application.

The company says that the first promotion, which is immediately
available, allows registered owners of Freehand 3.11 for Apple
Computer's Macintosh to order addDepth for $99. The usual suggested
retail price of addDepth is $179.

The two companies are also offering a retail bundle promotion
through Mac Warehouse that allows purchasers of Aldus Freehand 3.11
to receive addDepth at no cost. That deal is good through September
30, 1993.

Aldus Graphics Products Director Cliff Chiris said that the
partnership with Ray Dream gives Aldus a competitive advantage over
the Illustrator/Dimensions software bundle.

Freehand is a Postscript-compatible design and illustration software
package that includes pressure-sensitive drawing tools, layers, and
the ability to undo multiple layers, and is designed for use by
professional designers and illustrators.

Ray Dream's addDepth creates depth and perspective effects for type
and line art, and is compatible with desktop publishing,
presentation, and drawing software. Users can type or draw directly
in addDepth or import vector-based art from other applications.
Depth and perspective are automatically generated by addDepth, and
artwork can be edited in various drawing programs or placed in a
Macintosh application.

Aldus Freehand for the Macintosh has a suggested retail price of
$595 in the US.

(Jim Mallory/19930712/Press contact: Belinda Young, Aldus
Corporation, 206-386-8819; Reader contact: Aldus Corporation, 206-
628-2320)


(NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00025)

IBM Launches Microcontroller For Merchant Market 07/12/93
SOMERS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1993 JUL 12 (NB) -- IBM Technology
Products, which last October began a serious push into selling chips
to other companies, has unveiled a microcontroller meant to be used
in disk drives and other board-level controller applications.

IBM's new MC19610 is compatible with Intel Corp.'s 8096 chip
architecture, company officials said. Western Digital, which wrote
the microcode for the new controller, has placed a large order for
the chips for use in its hard disk drives, according to IBM.

IBM Technology Products is talking to other potential customers
but is not ready to announce any other sales, company spokesman
Jim Smith said. While the microcode in the MC19610 chip is
designed expressly for Western Digital products, IBM might use a
derivative of the device in products of its own in the future, he
added.

The MC19610 consists of a 16-bit processing unit and peripherals
meant to deal with board-level controller challenges, said IBM.
The new device comes in a 20-megahertz (MHz) complementary
metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) version and has the options of
32K bytes of mask read-only memory (ROM) and 1K bytes of
random-access memory (RAM).

The MC19610 is available now, at prices depending on
configuration. With 32K bytes of mask ROM and 1K bytes of RAM,
pricing ranges from $11 to $14 depending on volume, IBM said.

(Grant Buckler/19930712/Press Contact: Jim Smith, IBM Technology
Products, 914-766-4066; Bob Blair, Western Digital, 714-932-7834)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00026)

 ****Silicon Graphics Intros Workstation/Video Camera Combo 07/12/93
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 JUL 12 (NB) -- The trend
towards videoconferencing, especially on local area networks within
a corporation, has been highlighted with Silicon Graphics'
introduction of a new workstation complete with an integrated video
camera.

Jill Grossman, a spokesperson for Silicon Graphics, told Newsbytes
that, "'Indy' is the name of the workstation, and 'Indycam' is the
name of the digital video camera that is included with it." The
workstation will let users within a company see the image
of another worker using another system.

Set for availability in the third quarter of 1993, Grossman
said that, "The computer is sold at $4,995, with the camera
included."

Speaking of the intended market, she said that: "It's targeted
towards our traditional markets and additional high-end Mac and
PC markets, desktop publishing, and publishing."

The engineering industry was highlighted by the company as a target
niche market, with designers at different locations able to
demonstrate a specific part using the system's viewing
capabilities.

The workstations used would have to be connected in some way,
either through a local area network, if communication is just
in-house, or with modems and carrier telephone lines if workers
at different locations are conversing.

Grossman told Newsbytes that the operating system used with the new
workstation is not a new one, but is "Irix, our version of Unix."

(Ian Stokell/19930712/Press Contact: Jill Grossman, Silicon
Graphics Inc, tel [phone], fax [phone])


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00027)

Novell Intros NMS Software Development Kit 2.0 07/12/93
SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 JUL 12 (NB) -- Novell has
announced NetWare Management System (NMS) Software Development Kit
(SDK) version 2.0.

Kay Paumier, spokesperson for Novell, told Newsbytes that, for the
end user, the significance of version 2.0 is that "it allows the
NetWare environment to be managed by any management system based on
SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol)."

Novell claims that the NMS SDK provides developers with a
comprehensive set of tools and open APIs (application programming
interfaces) with which to develop management services and
applications.

Paumier told Newsbytes that the new version offers a NetWare server
MIB (Management Information Base) and an SNMP desktop transport.

The NetWare server MIB and SNMP transport allow any SNMP console
to manage NetWare servers and server-based applications, and an
SNMP desktop transport allows developers to build management
applications that relay information from desktop systems to any
SNMP management system.

Announcing the kit, Navindra Jain, vice president and general
manager of Novell's Network Management and Internetworking Products
Division, said: "Providing full SNMP support for the NetWare
environment is another significant step in Novell's efforts to
support enterprise customers."

"Our new SDK enables third-parties to integrate with the NMS
console, or any other SNMP-based system, to manage NetWare services
and NetWare clients from a central point. In addition, our customers
can integrate management of NetWare servers and desktops with the
management of other network devices through the SNMP-based
management system of their choice," he added.

Novell claims that an enhanced NetWare MIB specifies how NetWare can
be managed via SNMP-based network management systems. According to
the company, the agent that implements this MIB will be available in
early 1994. The NetWare MIB enables network managers to access such
server information as configuration management, problem
identification, and resource accounting from any SNMP-compliant
network management system.

The APIs in the NMS SDK enable developers to integrate their own
products for managing network devices, such as routers or hubs,
with the existing set of management applications provided by Novell
in the NetWare Management System, says the company.

Paumier told Newsbytes that the NMS SDK 2.0 tool kit is available
through the Novell Professional Developer's Program, priced at $495.
The price includes free technical support and free automatic updates.

(Ian Stokell/19930712/Press Contact: Kay Paumier, 510-656-8512,
Communications Plus)


(NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00028)

Dolch Intros Scalable, Customizable Portable Presentation PCs 07/12/93
MILPITAS, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 JUL 12 (NB) -- Dolch Computer
Systems has launched the MediaMach family of scalable and
customizable portable presentation PCs.

Each model in Dolch's latest series of Mach platforms is made up of
two distinct function modules -- the ComposerSlice and
PresentationPlayer -- that come together to form what is described
as a complete portable multimedia production and delivery system.

After a presentation has been created, the lightweight
PresentationPlayer can be detached from the unit and brought out on
the road, leaving the larger ComposerSlice behind.

The new system is designed so all hardware needed for production
resides in the ComposerSlice and the presentation hardware resides
in the PresentationPlayer, officials explained when announcing the
product.

The units come configured with a CD-ROM in the ComposerSlice and a
software suite loaded on a 486DX-33MHz PresentationPlayer with 4 MB
of memory and a 120 MB hard drive.

Through the one- and two-inch MultiSlice modules that characterize
the company's Mach architecture, the systems can be expanded to CPU
power of up to 486/DX2-66MHz, hard drive capacity of up to 1 GB,
and memory of up to 32 MB.

Other options for MediaMach include a choice of active matrix TFT
or passive matrix STN display, and the ability to select between
JPEG, MPEG, or DVI video compression and playback.

The TFT option displays a palette of 185,193 colors at a 60:1
contrast ratio on a 10-4-inch display that folds out from the
PresentationPlayer. The more economical STN option, for
applications where full-motion video is not required, shows 227,000
colors on a 9.5-inch double-scan display. A touch screen option is
also available.

Each model in the new MediaMach series features a channel between
the fold-out screen and the PresentationPlayer's upright standing
case that is aimed at eliminating the need for external speakers.

According to Volker Dolch, company president, the channel achieves
amplification through "impedance transfer," the same scientific
principle that operates in other simple cones, such as megaphones.

To gain maximum performance in the smallest possible space, and to
eliminate the noise of a fan, the MediaMach and other Mach PCs use
a cooling technique that was originally devised for supercomputers.

All major heat producing elements within the unit conduct heat to
cold plates through a highly heat-transmissive fluorocarbon liquid.

The plates are then cooled by a process known as "vertical
channelled drafting," or, more commonly known as the "chimney
effect." A temperature-controlled fan is available for use in
extreme environments.

In addition, like other Mach PCs, the MediaMach units are
ruggedized. The Mach enclosure is fabricated from aircraft alloy
and covered by a shock absorbent rubber compound. Inside the
enclosure, all system components are individually suspended and
shock mounted for further protection.

Members of the new MediaMach family weigh in at under 13 pounds.
Units are currently available two to six weeks ARO (after receipt
of order). Prices start at $11,295.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19930712/Public contact: Dolch Computer Systems,
tel [phone]; Press contact: Steve Fritz, Dolch, tel 408-957-
6575)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00029)

Global Village Intros Low Cost Mac Fax/Modem 07/12/93
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 JUL 12 (NB) -- The number
of home computer users that have a modem is increasing. Now Global
Village Communication has announced the $109 TelePort/Bronze II
fax/modem for the Macintosh.

The company is targeting the new product at home, home office and
small business users. TelePort/Bronze II includes Global Village's
GlobalFax software for communications management. With the new
product users can send faxes at 9600 bits-per-second (bps), receive
faxes at 4,800 bps, and access on-line services at 2,400 bps.

Interestingly, the fax/modem ships with a TelePort/Bronze II cable
that plugs into the serial port for fax and data communication, and
the Apple Desktop Bus (ADB) port for power access. The device is
powered by the Macintosh, and therefore requires no extra power
cable.

Announcing the new fax/modem, Neil Selvin, president and chief
executive officer of Global Village, said: "With TelePort/Bronze II,
we believe that high-quality communications on the Macintosh will be
accessible to thousands of new users. And, with an integrated and
scalable product line, a customer can buy into the world of Global
Village communications affordably and enjoy consistent usability as
their needs increase."

The TelePort/Bronze II is available immediately through the
company's authorized resellers, mail-order firms, and international
distributors for a suggested retail price of $109. The company says
that pricing outside the United States will vary by country.

(Ian Stokell/19930712/Press Contact: Kathy Bower, 415-390-8218,
Global Village Communication)


(NEWS)(APPLE)(LAX)(00030)

 ****Second Round Apple Price Cuts On Quadra, Server, Powerbook 07/12/93
CAMPBELL, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 JUL 12 (NB) -- Apple Computer is
again announcing price cuts of 29 to 24 percent on its Macintosh
Quadra, Apple Workgroup Server, and Powerbook notebook computer
line. The company is also offering rebates of $100 to $200 on
selected products in its Performa computer line.

The Macintosh Quadra 950 systems have been reduced up to 29 percent,
the Apple Workgroup Server 95 computers have been reduced up to 20
percent, and the Powerbooks have come down 7 percent to 34 percent.
The company has set up toll-free lines to answer consumer questions
about pricing and availability.

This is the second round of price cuts Apple has announced in less
than a month. In June, Apple announced price reductions selected
Macintosh Centris 610 models, Macintosh IIvx models, Powerbook 180s,
Apple Onescanners, and the Applecds compact disc read-only memory
(CD-ROM) drives.

Turmoil at Apple has been in the headlines. The company lost its
lawsuit against Microsoft over Windows, replaced its chief executive
officer (CEO) John Sculley with chief operating officer (COO)
Michael Spindler, who promptly announced lay offs of 2,500
employees, has frozen employee wages while cutting the pay of top
management, and there have been hints Apple is for sale.

Bob Puette, president of Apple USA said concerning the current round
of price cuts: "The price reductions, and the Performa rebates, are
part of our overall company strategy to take aggressive actions in
order to increase our market share."

Apple said it expects lower earnings for this half of the year and
industry analysts say pricing pressures from the IBM and compatible
personal computer (PC) market coupled with the success of Microsoft
Windows are the cause. The company's earnings statement is on track
for release the middle of this month, company officials added.

(Linda Rohrbough/19930712/Press Contact: Lisa Byrne, Apple
Computer, tel [phone], fax [phone]; Apple Customer
Assistance Center 800-776-2333; Apple reseller or retailer
referrals 800-538-9696)