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/nb930617

Text File | 1993-06-17 | 74KB | 1,596 lines

(NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00001)

BT Lands BP International Datacomms Contract 06/17/93
LONDON, ENGLAND, 1993 JUN 17 (NB) -- British Telecom (BT) has
announced that its Syncordia operation, the international "one stop"
telecoms company based in Atlanta, has signed a telecoms supply
contract with British Petroleum (BP) Finance.

Terms of the contract call for Syncordia to handle the datacomms
side of BP Finance, which plans to implement a global financial
trading network later this year. The network will span the US,
Europe and down to Australia.

Although the network will cost a small fortune to install, BP
Finance claims the payback period will be relatively short, since
the global network will effectively replace current regional
headquarters and networks. Instead, BP managers around the global
will use the Syncordia-supplied network to access currency, and
share and credit line details of their customers around the world.

According to BP Finance, the Syncordia network will link operations
centers in Harlow and London in the UK with similar centers in
Melbourne and Cleveland. Ohio.

Terms of the deal were not revealed, although Newsbytes notes that
around $5,000 million worth of trades are completed every day by the
BP Finance operation.

(Steve Gold/19930616)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00002)

Payphone For The Deaf 06/17/93
LONDON, ENGLAND, 1993 JUN 17 (NB) -- Following the lead set by AT&T
five years ago, British Telecom (BT) has at last unveiled its own
pay telephone for the deaf, the text payphone.

The unit can be operated like any normal telephone, but, tucked away
under the phone is a QWERTY keyboard plus a backlit liquid crystal
display with a two-line field that pops out like a cash register
drawer whenever a textphone modem tone is detected at the other
end of the link.

To use the textphone, the user takes the receiver off-hook and
places it on a special trigger hook on the side of the phone. This
switches the phone into textphone-ready mode, ready to operate in
text mode when required.

The new phones are on trial with BT. There is one unit on trial at
London's Kings Cross station, which this Newsbytes bureau passes
through on a regular basis, as well as at four other sites around
the UK. The payphones accept BT charge cards, as well as pre-paid BT
debit cards. They can be used as standard payphones if required.

The textphones built into the payphones are of the "Typetalk"
variety, a standard which BT uses on its network for links between
deaf and hearing-impaired users who wish to use a keyboard to
communicate.

If the user wishes to speak to a phone user without a textphone,
they can use the phone to call up a special operator, communicating
via the keyboard and allow the operator to call up the third party
and act as a translator between the spoken word and the keyboard.
The remote party is called and informed that the caller is deaf. The
call then progresses as normal.

The inaugural call on the BT prototype phone, which was manufactured
by Ultratec in the US, was Steve Illiffe, a deaf magazine editor.
The call was to his wife Emma, who is also hearing-impaired.

"We saw text payphones on our honeymoon in the United States," he
said, adding that the system will make life a lot easier for deaf
people, from both a personal and business point of view.

(Steve Gold/19930616)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00003)

EC Attempts To Breathe Life Into HDTV Project 06/17/93
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1993 JUN 17 (NB) -- European Commission (EC)
officials, meeting in Brussels, are debating whether to
continue funding the long-running high definition television
project.

Originally planned for inception last year, the EC planned to
"invest" funds in several HDTV manufacturers who wanted to
manufacturer HDTV sets. After a series of blocking votes by the
British Government, the EC trimmed down its plans, only to see its
plans blocked again by irate British officials who claim that the
free market will produce the technology of its own accord.

This third and final draft plan, the least expensive of the three,
centers around a planned $270 million investment trust which will
grant money to those TV manufacturers who can demonstrate plans to
develop a Euro-HDTV systems. The only provision on the grant is that
the EC funds will not amount to more than half the cash that is
being invested in the project.

This investment plan is a far cry from last year's plans to offer
four times this amount on a no-holds-barred basis to all European TV
manufacturers. Not surprisingly, the TV manufacturers came swarming
looking for money, before the EC voted on its approval for funding.

As Newsbytes goes to press, the debate on the investment plan
continues. The early evening news in London reports that the
discussions are expected to last several days.

(Steve Gold/19930616)


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

Low-priced Nextstep Intel Evaluation Kit 06/17/93
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 JUN 17 (NB) -- Next
Computer, which has moved its operating system from its own
proprietary computer onto the Intel platform, says it is
offering a low-priced Nextstep 3.1 evaluation kit for business
users.

The Nextstep 3.1 Evaluation Kit contains both the user and
developer versions of Nextstep 3.1 for $299 and runs in Intel
486- and Pentium-based personal computers (PCs). Next has aimed
the product at creation of custom object-oriented applications
in a client/server environment, saying it allows application
development at two to five times the speed.

Next started shipping the developer edition of Nextstep 3.1,
distributed on compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), last
month. However, the developer portion requires the user
edition, which is now shipping. The user edition is retail
priced at $795, while the developer edition is priced at
$1,995.

In addition, the company announced the Objectware catalog of
1412 objects from more than 100 independent object designers.
Objects are reusable software applications that sit between
traditional system software and traditional application
software and can be used to create custom applications.

For example, a set of communication objects enable customers to
send and receive information such as faxes or multimedia
objects. The Objectware has the following categories of
objects: Communication Objects & Device Drivers, Database
Systems & Objects, Development Tools & Utilities, Financial &
Data Analysis Tools, Graphics and 3D Objects, Information
Display Objects, Networking & Telecommunications, Sound, Music
and Multimedia, User Interface Objects. The catalog is
available from Next for $12.

Earlier this year, Next shut down its hardware
manufacturing to focus just on its operating system and
development tools. Redwood City, California-based Next is
headed by Apple Computer co-founder Steve Jobs.

(Linda Rohrbough/19930615/Press Contact: Karen Logsdon, Next
Computer, tel [phone], fax [phone])


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00005)

 ****Electronics Study Sees Globalization, Power Shifts 06/17/93
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1993 JUN 17 (NB) -- The North American
electronics industry is living in interesting times, according to
consulting firm Ernst & Young's fourth annual study of the
sector.

Shifts in the industry's balance of power, a continuing trend to
globalization, and the formation of "virtual corporations" are
among the key trends the study identifies.

Titled Electronics 93: The New Global Reality, the Ernst & Young
study is based in part on a survey of the chief executives of 300
electronics firms in the United States and Canada.

Several developments in the past year dramatize the pace of
change in the industry, the study says. "In 1992, the gradual
transfer of electronics industry leadership became more dramatic
as IBM posted the largest loss in US high-tech history while
Intel and Microsoft posted record sales and profits. For the
first time the individual market capitalizations of each of these
two innovators exceeded IBM's."

That watershed was the culmination of a 10-year climb to industry
dominance for Intel and Microsoft, on whose processors and
software the IBM personal computer standard was built, Ernst &
Young noted.

There was some good news for the United States in the survey,
which found that US semiconductor companies' share of the
worldwide market exceeded that of their Japanese rivals for the
first time since the mid-1980s. Also, a US company, Applied
Materials, edged out Japanese firms as the leading supplier of
semiconductor manufacturing gear.

However, while US employment in the semiconductor sector rose
in 1992, the workforce shrank in every other segment of the
electronics industry that Ernst & Young studied. Almost 100,000
jobs were lost in the electronics industry in the United States
in 1992, the study said -- a four-percent drop from 1991
employment levels.

Globalization -- companies operating around the world
without close ties to any one country -- continues to
be the trend, the study said. "The new double-digit growth is
really in the developing countries," observed Peter Farwell,
high-technology director in Ernst & Young's Canadian operation.

The need to move into new global markets, coupled with the
pace of innovation that forces companies to develop new products
faster than before in order to keep up, puts many demands on
electronics companies.

Increasingly, they are turning to alliances to help them deal
with those challenges, Ernst & Young found. "The virtual
enterprise," the study said, "is a network of companies ... that
align to pursue specific market opportunities and achieve a
competitive advantage. Rather than rely on synergies and cost
savings that the traditional, vertically integrated organization
was thought to provide, companies are now seeking the benefits of
the virtual enterprise: quick access to far-flung markets,
other companies' skills and resources, new sources of capital,
and technology leadership."

Introducing the report to a Canadian audience at a Toronto press
conference, Farwell said Canadian electronics firms face an added
challenge in fitting into this trend, since they often must form
alliances across international boundaries.

However, he added that Canadian firms have a certain advantage
due to the small Canadian market, which forces them to move into
international marketing early in their development. "Our
companies are actually on average gaining experience in
international sales faster than their US counterparts," he
said.

(Grant Buckler/19930616/Press Contact: David Rowney, Ernst &
Young, 416-943-3185)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00006)

Lotus, MCI In Mail Alliance 06/17/93
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1993 JUN 17 (NB) -- MCI and
Lotus Development Corp. have announced plans to link Lotus'
cc:Mail electronic-mail software for personal computers with the
worldwide MCI Mail service. The two firms signed a joint
development and marketing alliance.

The deal says cc:Mail Post Offices will be built into the MCI
Mail network so users of cc:Mail Mobile and cc:Mail Remote can
exchange messages without the need for a local-area network (LAN)
or special gateway software on a personal computer. These users
will also be able to exchange messages with users of MCI and 54
other public electronic mail services in 40 countries, and send
facsimile, telex, and paper messages as regular MCI Mail
subscribers can, company officials said.

MCI Mail subscribers will also be able to send messages into any
cc:Mail installation that is hooked into MCI Mail, a spokeswoman
for the company told Newsbytes.

Officials said these services will be available by year-end to
all cc:Mail Mobile and cc:Mail Remote users, including users of
Hewlett-Packard Co.'s recently announced HP 100LX palmtop
computer, which has cc:Mail embedded in read-only memory (ROM).

In a prepared statement, Larry Crume, Lotus' vice-president of
electronic messaging and mobile computing, said the deal "will
open the universe of mobile workers to new modes of messaging and
information access."

(Grant Buckler/19930616/Press Contact: David Grip, McGlinchey &
Paul for Lotus, 617-862-4514)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00007)

Time Warner Signs With Qualcomm For CDMA 06/17/93
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1993 JUN 17 (NB) -- Qualcomm won
another battle for digital cellular supremacy, as Time Warner
Cable said it would put its Code Division Multiple Access, or
CDMA, digital phone system into its full service cable network
to be built in Orlando, Florida. The announcement was made by
former FCC chairman Dennis Patrick, now president of Time Warner
Telecommunications.

Patrick said the Orlando network will be the first US cable
network with wireless phone service built-in. The system will
test the ability of CDMA to operate seamlessly in multiple
environments, and test personal phone number services which
follow their holders from car to office to home. Patrick said
Qualcomm will create a specialized package of handsets and
an infrastructure which will help Time Warner figure out where
it wants to go in telephone services.

Qualcomm has been in a long-running battle with Interdigital
Communications, which offers a digital cellular standard called
Time Division Multiple Access, or TDMA. The two companies are
presently engaged in a court battle over whether Qualcomm
infringes on Broadband CDMA patents Interdigital acquired when it
bought SCS Mobilecomm last year. While TDMA was endorsed by the
cellular industry a few years ago, and some companies like McCaw
and Southwestern Bell remain committed to it, other major
cellular operators like US West, Bell Atlantic and PacTel have
committed to CDMA, citing its higher capacity.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19930616/Press Contact: Edward Adler, Time
Warner, 212-484-6630; Thomas Crawford, Qualcomm, 619-597-5715)


(NEWS)(APPLE)(TYO)(00008)

NTT Talks With Apple On Telecom Delivery 06/17/93
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1993 JUN 17 (NB) -- Japan's major telecommunication
firm NTT is talking with Apple Computer concerning possible
joint development of multimedia telecommunication devices and
on unified telecommunication protocol, according to a
published report.

The first talks between Apple and NTT were reportedly held in
February when Apple's chairman, John Sculley, visited
Japan. The firms are discussing development of pictorial
data transmission software and multimedia devices.
Also, NTT may invest Apple's subsidiary, General Magic.

NTT may develop devices jointly with AT&T, which is planning
to provide next-generation electronic mail service in the
US called Magic Mail based on General Magic's technology in
mid-1994. NTT may provide a similar service in Japan using
its digital network called B-ISDN or broad integrated
services digital network.

Apple Computer (Japan) has not commented on this issue,
however NTT's vice president, Junichiro Miyazu, has told the
Nikkei newspaper that NTT is talking with Apple. The
key problem to solve will be how to interconnect a terminal
device with the digital telecommunication network, he reportedly
stated.

On the subject of joint business with General Magic,
AT&T, Sony and Matsushita Electric are already involved with
the firm. NTT will decide whether it will also link with
the Apple subsidiary by this fall.

(Masayuki "Massey" Miyazawa/19930617/Press Contact: NTT, +81-3-
3509-5035, Fax, [phone])


(NEWS)(UNIX)(SFO)(00009)

Sun Sets On World Cup Soccer 1994 06/17/93
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 JUN 17 (NB) -- No
matter how many people in the United States watch the Soccer
World Cup in the United States in 1994, Sun Microsystems knows
a good thing when it sees it, publicity-wise anyway, because the
worldwide audience will be immense. And Sun has been named
an official marketing partner and exclusive computer supplier for
the 1994 World Cup.

While cynics maintain that even the world's best will not spark
a successful professional soccer league in the US, soccer remains
the world's most popular sport. Even the US public, oblivious to
previous attempts to establish the professional domestic game,
appear to be snapping up tickets to World Cup matches as soon
as they become available.

In keeping with the current trend towards downsizing, the
information system used by World Cup USA 1994 will be a
client-server networking model.

Sun Microsystems says it will provide World Cup '94 with
SPARCcenter 2000 servers along with SPARCserver 10s, in addition
to about 1,000 workstations made up of SPARCclassics and
SPARCstation LXs. All systems will use Sun's own Solaris version
of the Unix operating environment.

All "mission critical" applications will be managed by the system,
including: accreditation, results, security, logistics and media
systems at all nine game sites along with all applications used at
World Cup office sites.

In announcing the deal, Alan I. Rothenberg, chairman and chief
executive officer of World Cup USA 1994, said: "We believe Sun
Microsystems is the only supplier who can provide us with the
hardware and all other technology support in order to implement
our vision of client-server computing. These games will make
history as the first World Cup to be held in the United States."

World Cup USA 1994 is the non-profit group charged with staging
the 1994 World Cup championship under the directions of FIFA
(Federation Internationale de Football Association), soccer's
international governing body. The 1994 World Cup will take place
from June 17 to July 17, 1994, in nine cities nationwide. The World
Cup for Soccer, which is one of, if not the, most popular sporting
event outside the US, is held every four years.

The company says that the SPARCcenter 2000s will be installed
in Los Angeles, Washington, and Dallas, with the SPARCstation
10 servers being installed at all nine sites.

Doubting Thomases maintain that US soccer fans will remain fans
as long as the best in the world are demonstrating their histrionics
in the World Cup. But, they argue, when the tournament ends, so will
soccer in the US. Some US players have been very successful in the
professional game, but they have had to go to Europe to make a living.

However, the US national side did beat England in a US-based
international tournament recently, for the first time in many years.
But the England team is so lacking these days that it may not even
qualify for the World Cup in 1994. And the England team that lost to
the US was hardly in the same class as the great England team that
beat West Germany to take the World Cup in 1966. That included
such immortals as Geoff Hurst, Martin Peters, Jack and Bobby
Charlton, the great England captain Bobby Moore, and probably the
best goalkeeper that ever played the game - Gordon Banks.

(Ian Stokell/19930617/Press Contact: Chuck Mulloy, 415-336-6424,
Sun Microsystems Inc.; Jim Trecker, 212-332-1994, World Cup USA
1994)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(SFO)(00010)

PacTel, Apple & ComputerWare Demo Cellular Technology 06/17/93
WALNUT CREEK, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 JUN 17 (NB) -- PacTel,
Apple Computer and ComputerWare are teaming up in Northern
California to offer demonstrations of how to send data over
cellular networks using the Apple PowerBook.

The hands-on demonstrations will take place from June 17 through
September 30, at ComputerWare stores in San Francisco, San Rafael,
Dublin, and Sunnyvale.

According to the companies, visitors can participate in a hands-on
demonstration to learn how to send facsimiles, access corporate
and third-party information databases or send electronic mail
messages over PacTel's cellular network at "effective speeds
exceeding 9,600 bits-per-second."

In announcing the promotion, Lee Franklin, president, PacTel
Cellular's Wireless Data Division, said: "Our customer research shows
that these will be the applications used most by professionals while
on the road. As people become untethered from their desks by using
these applications, their productivity will soar."

The companies will notify thirty-six thousand cellular users and
ComputerWare customers in the Bay Area about the wireless data
demonstrations through a direct mail campaign. The campaign will
also offer individuals discount coupons for purchases of selected
PacTel equipment and ComputerWare merchandise.

The companies maintain that data over cellular service is currently
available through PacTel Mobile Services, a Cellular One reseller.
PacTel Mobile Services' customers will have access to a special 800
number hotline providing technical support.

The companies maintain that four devices are required to send data
over cellular networks: a portable computer, a cellular interface
which gives dial tone to the modem, a modem, and a cellular
telephone. The four devices are expected to be integrated sometime
in the future into a single device.

PacTel's Wireless Data Division and ComputerWare claim to have
tested a number of devices that enable the PowerBook to send or
receive data transmitted over the cellular network.

The equipment demonstrated at ComputerWare includes the Apple
PowerBook, the Applied Engineering PowerBook modem, Motorola
cellular interface and cellular telephones. The whole package
will set the user back about $2,666. For those who already have a
PowerBook, modem and cellular phone, a cellular interface device
can be purchased for about $299.

(Ian Stokell/19930617/Press Contact: Amy Damianakes,
510-210-3645, PacTel Corp.; Robert Cudd, 415-496-1006,
ComputerWare)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00011)

Energis Scores BBC Broadcast Net Contract 06/17/93
LONDON, ENGLAND, 1993 JUN 17 (NB) -- Energis, the telecoms
subsidiary of the England's National Grid Company, has secured a
ten year contract to operate a managed broadcast network for the
distribution of BBC TV and radio signals around the UK.

The contract, the first major one for the fledgling telecoms
company, which has only just obtained a licence to offer telecoms
services in the UK, is significant. Until now, the BBC's TV
and radio signals have been managed in-house using British Telecom
circuits around the UK.

Energis is claiming that its brand new digital network is ideally
suited to moving the large volumes of data that BBC TV and radio
signals generate. Energis' network is currently being built and is
based around synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) technology.

David Dey, Energis' chief executive, said that the BBC is the
company's first customer "coming only three weeks after our licence
was granted."

"It is a significant milestone in our plans to become a full
service telecoms supplier to businesses and homes throughout the
country. This contract with the BBC demonstrates confidence in the
quality and competitiveness of our network and its service
capability. It's the result of working together in partnership with
our customer over the past 12 months," he said.

Bert Gallon, the BBC's chief engineer in the resources division, was
enthusiastic about signing with Energis. He welcomed the entry of
Energis into the UK's telecoms market-place and the competition it
is introducing into the distribution of broadband signals.

"We're delighted to be associated with this exciting new development
and are looking forward to the introduction of the new network and
to a successful working relationship with Energis," he said.

(Steve Gold/19930617/Press & Public Contact: Energis - Tel: 071-936-
5440)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(SYD)(00012)

Australian Bounty Hunters Active On "Snitch Line" 06/17/93
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1993 JUN 17 (NB) -- A month ago the Business
Software Association of Australia (BSAA) launched its controversial
campaign to get members of the public to report anyone using
unofficial copies of software. In return, the caller would get a
$2500 reward for successful prosecutions.

In Australia the action of "telling" on someone to the authorities
(or in the case of children, to parents or teachers) is to "dob"
on them. Well, there's been a whole lot of dobbing going on.

The BSAA reports around 150 calls per week with about 60 of these
from people actively inquiring about the reward. In many cases it
is ex-employees who want to report actions of their former
employers. Another 60 or so want information on the subject of
software piracy, and the remaining 20 percent were oddball calls
such as the press.

Jim McNamara of the BSAA said he had learned of backyarders selling
brand-name software for as little as $5 a diskette. "We have also
heard of dealers selling systems with lots of free software that is,
of course, pirated commercial software. And there are also lots of
stories about whole networks running on just one copy of the
software."

The Australian Computer Society said it hoped its members would
report such occurrences by employers, not for the reward, but
because it was the ethical thing to do.

Another industry body, the AIAA, said that it was not in favor
of the scheme because employers were often still not aware of
what was happening in their organizations, or had not realized
that it was illegal. It said that this scheme really only appealed
to people who want money or revenge.

(Paul Zucker/19930617)


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

Champion Accounting Package Adds New Features 06/17/93
ENGLEWOOD, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1993 JUN 17 (NB) -- Champion Business
Systems announced this week that it has added 35 new
enhancements to its high-end accounting products, the Champion
Controller and System 5 Networking packages.

Champion President Charlie Hager says most of the enhancements are
directed at getting information from Champion instantly, with more
detail and more choices for selecting what the customer wants to
see. One of the new features is QuickStat, which allows the user to
quickly design up to 500 different reports just by pressing a hot
key.

Another new feature is an automatic data recovery system. In earlier
versions of the software a file containing records damaged by a power
surge or hardware failure halted processing. In the new system, a
routine removes the damaged record, continues processing, and
restores all undamaged data. Champion performs an internal audit to
make sure accounts are in balance, and prints or displays a list of
all the records or transactions that need to be reentered.

New selection criteria for deciding which customers get billing
statements and how they are printed has also been added. It's now
possible to print and reprint billing statements retroactively and as
often as desired. Interest calculations are computed and adjusted
accordingly.

The company says it has also added more detail to the accounts
payable ledgers to show payment history on an invoice-by-invoice
basis, and retroactive listing of vendor ledgers is available.
Champion has also revised the Federal 940 and 941 forms that report
payment of withholding and other taxes to comply with the new
government forms, and a rounding error on the 941 has been
eliminated. The company has also added a new automatic check
alignment routine to eliminate wasting checks and invoices, and a new
payroll report projects payroll expenses for any future period.

Hager says the changes were a direct result of a direct mail survey
of users, and some of the results were surprising. "Many enhancement
requests were predictable because we keep a history of requests and
monitor support calls by frequency of occurrence. However there were
a few surprises. One feature, a request for an automatic fulfillment
of back orders, was rated low on the (survey) and a request
for browsing, on screen, through various reports rated number one."

The Champion Bookkeeper, Accountant, and Controller are upwards
compatible and have a suggested retail price of $195, $795, and
$1,295 respectively. A network version with a source code option is
available for $595 per module.

Champion also says it is working on a new accounting product line
that will be modifiable without any programming, and expects to
announce the beta version and product capabilities within the next
few weeks. Marketing manager Bill McCabe told Newsbytes the product,
code named Crystal, will be more a tool than an accounting package,
although it will provide full accounting functionality. McCabe said
Crystal is designed to be modified by the dealer rather than the
user.

Written in FoxPro for Windows, selected items will be able to
be changed or added, such as the length of a field or new fields, by
choosing from a pick list. Pricing and specific features haven't been
set yet, but McCabe said Crystal will be a high-end package. "It's
more than an accounting package, it's a tool, like a case tool for
accounting," he told Newsbytes. Current users of Champion accounting
products will be able to upgrade to Crystal without losing any data,
according to McCabe.

(Jim Mallory/19930616/Press and reader contact: Champion Business
Systems, 800-2443-2626 or 303-792-3606)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00014)

Nutrition Software For The HP95LX 06/17/93
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1993 JUN 17 (NB) -- A Colorado
company has announced a nutritional software designed to run on the
Hewlett-Packard HP95LX palmtop computer.

Mirical Corporation is now shipping the Personal Food Analyst, a
software program that analyzes nutrition intake against
user-determined standards and displays or prints the results in
graphical or numerical form.

Mirical says the software can analyze up to 27 nutrients such as
calories, proteins, carbohydrates, fats, and cholesterol and has a
built-in database of over 4,000 food items. The database can be added
to by the user.

The company says the software tracks progress throughout the day,
recording calories and nutrients consumed, and displaying remaining
calorie and nutrients for the day. The program is intended to allow
individuals to modify and improve their eating habits. Personal Food
Analyst displays a seven-day calendar of daily goals.

Presently PFA is available on a one-megabyte ROM card exclusively for
the HP95LX, which loads directly into the computer's PCMCIA slot.
Mirical says its long term objective is to manufacture a custom hand
held version of the PFA for the consumer market.

For users interested in the software, but without an HP95LX, Mirical
is offering a package deal that gets you both the software and the
95LX with PFA already loaded for $599.95. By itself PFA sells for
$289.

Mirical says Hewlett-Packard is inserting a PFA brochure in its 9LX
boxes, and it has received a request from Apple Computer for an Apple
version of the PFA to be used with Apple Computer's Newton. Mirical
President Mike Hidrogo told Newsbytes the company has been approved
as an Apple developer and is waiting for the necessary technical
information to covert the program from DOS to the Apple operating
system. Hidrogo says PFA is also being reviewed by HMO Kaiser
Permanente.

(Jim Mallory/19930615/Press and reader contact: Mirical Corporation,
719-598-5276 or 800-732-7707, fax [phone])


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00015)

 ****Database World - Borland To Upsize, Simplify Apps 06/17/93
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1993 JUN 17 (NB) -- "In the
computing world, the name of the game isn't power, and it isn't
ease of use. It's a combination of both," stated Philippe Kahn,
chairman, president and CEO of Borland, in a plenary talk on "The
Present and Future of Database Management" at Database World &
Client-Server World in Boston this week.

Mainframe applications have traditionally been known for power, and
desktop software for simplicity. Now that these two computing
hemispheres are converging, the ultimate goal should be
rightsizing, he maintained. "Rightsizing involves juggling
hardware and software architectures, so that you get the best and
most cost effective solution to the application you're trying to
accomplish," he commented.

Vendors are approaching rightsizing from both the downsizing and
upsizing directions, and Borland has been a player on both sides of
the movement. "But our prediction," he continued, "is that we'll
play mainly in the upsizing marketplace."

To achieve upsizing, the ten-year-old company is adding simplicity,
as well as scalability and open connectivity, to its entire product
line, according to the CEO. Historically, Borland's spreadsheet
and database applications and development tools have been aimed
mainly at power users and professional developers, a group that
comprises 60% of the current PC market, he said.

"But now you'll see us pioneer new frontiers in ease of use," he
pledged. The new Borland products will also be interoperable with
other vendors' products, and ready for quick transformation into
powerful client-server tools.

To achieve interoperability, Borland has rewritten all its
applications to comply with BOCA (Borland Object Component
Architecture), an architecture the company first launched four
years ago. "We've turned our world upside down to build a new
generation of products," he reflected.

At the center of BOCA is the Interbase Relational Engine, an open
API (application programming interface), said the company chief.
For conversion to client-server use, the BOCA engine can be rapidly
replaced with an engine conforming to the IDAPI Initiative.
Founded by Borland, IBM, Novell and WordPerfect, the client-server
interoperability initiative is now about 50 members strong, and
more vendors are joining all the time, he noted.

The biggest challenge for Borland in the application reengineering
process is to constantly keep simplicity in mind, said Kahn. "We
spend so much time in thinking through, architecting and building
our applications that we should never lose sight of that essential
point," he remarked.

In creating its upcoming applications, the company spent many
months on usability testing to arrive at features that will provide
simplicity. "These features, which will be a surprise, will kind
of guess what you're doing and figure things out for you," he
explained.

One of these capabilities, which will debut in the upcoming Quattro
Pro 5.0 for Windows, is a "network deployment installer" that lets
a network administrator quickly establish configurations for
different sets of users, he said. This and other ease-of-use
features will be extended across Borland's product line.

By incorporating the network deployment installer into its
development tools, for example, Borland will allow developers to
rapidly come up with applications that solve a pressing need for
users. "We've found that 80% of technical support calls for
multiuser environments are installation-related," asserted Kahn.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19930617/Press contact: Keith Todd, Digital
Consulting Inc., tel [phone])


(NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00016)

Database World - DataEase Upgrades Express For Windows 06/17/93
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1993 JUN 17 (NB) -- At Database &
Client-Server World, DataEase has introduced the first revision of
a Windows-based RDBMS (relational database management system)
initially produced in September, 1992.

DataEase Express for Windows 1.1 features a built-in import/export
facility, access to additional SQL engines, new multi-user
capabilities, and improved interoperability with DataEase 4.53 for
DOS, officials said in announcing the upgrade.

Built-in import capabilities now include DataEase for DOS, dBASE,
Lotus 1-2-3, DIF, and ASCII (fixed and variable length). Built-in
export capabilities includes Lotus 1-2-3 and ASCII. The first
version handled import and export through an external utility.

As in Version 1.0, the application will continue to provide online
connectivity to Paradox and dBASE databases through Microsoft's
ODBC (Open Database Connectivity). Now, however, drivers will be
separately available for Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle Server 6.0,
OS/2 Database Manager, and DB2 through Micro Decisionware's
Database Gateway.

Multi-user enhancements include certification for the Artisoft
LANastic and Microsoft Windows for Windows peer-to-peer networking
environments, a more flexible multi-user configuration, and new
Access Paks that permit DataEase Express to be managed from a
central server and accessed by multiple users.

Interoperability with DataEase 4.55 for DOS has been improved with
the ability to execute DataEase 4.53 procedures from the Windows-
based GUI. As a result, users can now combine the highly visual
forms, menus and reports in the Windows version with the
procedural, transactional capabilities of the DOS edition,
according to officials.

DataEase for Windows 1.1 is priced at $395. A Server Access 3-Pak,
adding three concurrent network users, is priced at $915, and a
Server Access 5-Pak, adding five concurrent network users, at
$1,260.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19930617/Press contacts: Randy Newell, DataEase,
tel [phone]; Dave Gayman or Bruce Rogers, Rogers
Communications for DataEase, tel [phone])


(NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00017)

IBM Canada Seeks To Cut Staff By 1,000 06/17/93
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1993 JUN 17 (NB) -- IBM Canada Ltd.
hopes to cut its payroll by about 10 percent through a new round
of retirement incentives.

The company is offering two incentive programs, one for those
already eligible for retirement and another for those within five
years of retirement, company spokesman Mike Quinn said. Officials
hope that about 1,000 of the Canadian subsidiary's roughly 10,000
employees will choose to leave under one of the plans.

If that goal is not met, Quinn said, "we'll have to cross that
bridge when we come to it -- but we don't anticipate having to
cross that bridge." He said a similar plan offered earlier was
well received.

IBM Canada has just announced that the retirement incentives,
offered to employees in its manufacturing and development
operations a couple of weeks ago, will also be available to those
in marketing and services jobs.

IBM Canada employees are normally eligible for retirement at the
age of 55 or after 30 years of service.

Worldwide, IBM last year cut 40,000 jobs from its payroll, and in
December the company said it planned to chop another 25,000
during 1993. This year, for the first time in its history, IBM
has resorted to involuntary layoffs to cut staff. So far, there
have been no layoffs in Canada.

The worldwide company lost $4,965 million in 1992. IBM Canada,
after losing C$17 million in 1991, logged net income of C$800,000
in the year ended Dec. 31, 1992.

(Grant Buckler/19930617/Press Contact: Mike Quinn, 416-474-3049)


(NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00018)

Cognos Plans PowerHouse For NT, Japanese Products 06/17/93
OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1993 JUN 17 (NB) -- Cognos plans to
port its PowerHouse application development software to
Microsoft's recently launched Windows NT operating system. The
company also announced versions of several products for the
Japanese, Chinese, and Korean markets.

Cognos said the Windows NT version of PowerHouse will provide a
full 32-bit implementation of the software, full multitasking,
support for Microsoft's Object Linking and Embedding (OLE), and
compatibility with networks using Transmission Control
Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), which is widely used in
large networks in North America.

To allow access to data stored in a variety of databases, the
software will also support Microsoft's Open Database Connectivity
(ODBC) standard as well as application program interfaces (APIs)
from various database vendors, Cognos officials said.

The company plans to release a PowerHouse Software Developers'
Kit for NT by the spring of 1994.

Cognos also said its PowerPlay executive information system
software, PowerHouse, and the PowerHouse Windows interface for
PowerHouse are now available in Japanese, and will be offered in
traditional Chinese and Korean versions by this fall. A version
supporting the simplified Chinese character set is also planned.

PowerHouse is also available in English, French, and German, a
spokeswoman for the firm said.

The company also announced a partnership with Teijin Ltd., a
Japanese conglomerate, to develop a version of PowerHouse for the
NEC4800 hardware, which runs the Unix operating system.

(Grant Buckler/19930617/Press Contact: Michael Greeley, Cognos,
617-229-6600 ext. 220; Wendy Rajala, for Cognos, 416-338-8532)


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

Accelerated 486 VGA Controller For Flat Panel Displays 06/17/93
TEMPE, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1993 JUN 17 (NB) -- VSLI Technology this
week introduced an accelerated 486 local bus super VGA controller
designed for portable computer flat panel displays.

The company says the device has a glueless CPU interface and
supports a broad range of panel types, with graphics hardware
overlays, a 32-bit video memory, and an embedded BitBLT graphics
accelerator engine. BIOS and driver software will also be supplied
by VSLI.

The device will interface with a wide range of color, monochrome,
LCD, and CRT display units. The integrated BitBLT graphics
accelerator and the flat frame buffer graphics modes enhance
performance in GUI (graphical user interface) environments such as
Microsoft Windows, according to the VSLI announcement.

The company says backwards compatibility is maintained with CGA,
MDA, and EGA while offering CRT resolutions up to 1024 by 768 with
256 colors. The chip also implements hardware graphic overlays which
can be used as pop-up control panels for power management and system
status. The overlays are 64 X 64 or 128 X 128 pixels with four
colors which are independent from the main video palette.

Called the VL82C170, the chip is manufactured in 0.8 micron
technology and packaged in a 208-lead metric quad flat pack. Support
software including VGA, VESA and Windows drivers are also available
from VSLI. The company says chip samples and evaluation boards are
scheduled for availability in September, with volume production
beginning in November. The chip is priced at $28.50 in lots of
1,000.

(Jim Mallory/19930616/Press contact: Barbara Hamilton, VSLI
Technology, 602-752-6226)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(MOW)(00020)

Russian Telecom Stats Unveiled 06/17/93
MOSCOW, RUSSIA, 1993 JUN 17 (NB) -- The Russian State
Statistical Committee has published the results of a
communications survey during 1992. The report suggests that
the communications industry is doing well, unlike the
Russian economy as a whole.

In 1992 the length of long-distance phone lines increased by
6%, totalling 272 million kilometres (km), while fiber phone
cables increased by 40 percent, totalling to 367,000 km.
Satellite channels increased by a tiny fraction of 0.4%, while
digital lines multiplied by a factor of 1.5. The total length of
digital transmission channels has reached 4.1 million km.

Rural communications also experienced growth -- in 1992, 96,500
new phone numbers were installed, which is 40 percent higher
than in the previous year. But phones are still in demand
in small Russian villages, and you can easily find places
with a 30 minutes drive to the nearest phones, even in the
Moscow region.

Otherwise, new cable line installations were down by 35
percent, new radio relay channels were down by 27 percent.
New city phone exchanges were down by 17 percent. The total
number of new phone lines in cities and towns installed in
1992 was only 705,000.

The installation of new ground satellite stations also
decreased by 18 percent to 939, while four new communications
satellites were launched.

According to the report, Russia is the first East European country
to install a national cellular network. By the beginning of 1993
this network consisted of 25,500 subscriber radial stations
of the "Altai" brand (the outdated system working on the 450
MHz frequency band), 10,000 pagers, and 6,000 cellular and zone
cellular phones.

The total installed phone base increased by 504,000. Meanwhile,
as the number of home phones rose by 687,000, the number of
business phones fell by 183,000, which is attributed to
state enterprises cutting their costs by decreasing their
phone calls. Still, there are about 11 million Russian
families waiting for home phones to be installed.

The number of public pay phones plunged last year, with
local pay phones declining 11 percent and long-distance
pay phones by 13 percent. The main reasons are increased
costs of pay phone production and maintenance, theft, and
vandalism. Another reason is the cost of the call -- phone
authorities just completed a rate switch from 2 kopeks
(approximately $0.00017) to 1 rouble ($0.001) for an
unlimited local call from a payphone.

The registered base of fax machines doubled to 13,400, but
experts suggest that only a small number of fax machines are
registered. The number of telex stations also increased
by one third -- to 6,800.

(Eugene Peskin & Kirill Tchashchin/19910616)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00021)

UK - Skills Shortage Threatens Economic Recovery 06/17/93
RICHMOND-UPON-THAMES, MIDDLESEX, ENGLAND, 1993 JUN 17 (NB) --
Britain's long-awaited economic recovery could be hindered if the
Government does not take steps to solve a national shortage of
information technology (IT) skills that are already damaging
employment prospects, according to a report just out.

The report, issued by the West London ITEC (industry training and
enterprise council), a Government-funded IT services organization,
is based on a survey of more than 700 companies around Britain. It
notes that widespread deficiencies in IT skills at all levels, "from
the boardroom to the mailroom," combined with a shortfall in
critical IT specialists, is blocking British industry's ability to
capitalize on the upward trend in the economy.

The survey concludes that around 20 percent of the organizations
interviewed by the ITEC will not survive unless a solution is found
soon.

"Our research indicates that over seven million people, around a
quarter of Britain's workforce, are now involved in IT," explained
Meenu Vora, the executive director of West London's ITEC.

Vora, who claims that the ITEC is the most skilled of the UK's
several dozen ITECs, said that IT has permeated into every aspect of
business life, but that businesses are failing to exploit its
potential, because they lack the skills to do so.

"There is a national backlog of 50 to 100 million man days of
computer skills training. To put the problem right using
conventional methods would cost between UKP 10,000 and 20,000
million. There is an urgent need for new thinking," he said.

The report -- "IT skills in the 90s -- overcoming obstacles to
growth" -- notes that most, if not all, businesses are failing to
exploit IT to the full, inhibiting their sales growth and expansion
in existing markets, as well as lowering their profits. According to
West London ITEC, 90 percent of those organizations questioned in
the survey admitted that the IT skills problem is also slowing their
expansion into new markets, while 30 percent say it is inhibiting
their ability to create new jobs.

"No single company can deal with a problem of this size," Vora said.
"Its scale is national and its impact on business widespread. It
must be attacked on a collaborative basis. A partnership between
business, education, training and government would pool resources
and accelerate solutions to the problem," he added.

The report makes for some damning comments on the state of British
industry, as well as the British Government's abilities to plan
ahead in the IT arena. The problem goes back more than a decade,
but, rather than apportion the blame, the report attempts to plan a
way out of the IT skills shortage pit.

The report notes that most companies are "making do" with minimal
skills training. This suggests a lack of investment in individual
skills development. "Two out of three businesses have no form of
training in IT and eight in ten companies surveyed (reported) that
the most common form of skills development was "learning on the job"
or "by trial and error," rather than through structured training and
development," said the report.

Copies of the "IT skills in the 90s" report are available from the
West London ITEC, priced UKP 25 for the management summary and UKP
235 for the full report.

(Steve Gold/19930617/Press & Public Contact: Meenu Vora - Tel: 081-
577-1010)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00022)

Cordless PABX 06/17/93
LONDON, ENGLAND, 1993 JUN 17 (NB) -- British Telecom (BT) has
launched the telecoms industry's first cordless private automatic
branch exchange (PABX), the Meridian Companion. The telecoms company
claims that, by the end of the decade, cordless telephony will
amount for 50 percent of all telephone usage.

What's interesting about the new PABX is that no one has come out
with a cordless exchange before. BT notes that the workplace, at
which the PABX is pitched, is one of the few areas where cordless
telephony has not been fully available.

The Companion PABX is a low-power cordless phone system, based
around the cordless telephony type two (CT-2) digital phone
standard, with a range of around 200 meters from the base station.

The main selling points of the system are its ability to instantly
locate users around the building (BT plans that users will keep
their phones on their pocket), plus the lack of any need to wire the
building up. This second feature means that the PABX can be up and
running in a very short space of time.

According to David Hayward, VT's voice products marketing manager,
research has shown that almost three quarters of all office calls
never reach the intended person, causing both caller frustration and
a general loss in office productivity. "With the Meridian Companion,
users can now initiate and receive high quality digital calls
anywhere in their work environment using cordless handsets," he
said.

The Companion has a total capacity of 31 cordless handsets and is
designed to operate on a stand-alone basis, or, as BT envisages, as a
subset of a hard-wired PABX. Up to 15 base stations can be hooked
up, with each base station capable of handling two calls at the same
time. Talk time on the handsets is around four hours, so overnight
charging is suggested.

The PABX operates with a handset power of just 10 milliwatts, with
the phones operating in the 848 to 868 megahertz radio waveband.
Pricing on the system depends on the modular requirements of users.
A typical systems of the control unit, five base stations, five
wired phones and seven cordless handsets would be around the UKP
8,000 mark.

(Steve Gold/19930617/Press Contact: Penn Communications - Tel: 081-
569-9667)


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

Dell Shuffles Product Execs 06/17/93
AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1993 JUN 17 (NB) -- Dell Computer Corporation
announced this week it has named a former Apple Computer executive as
the new senior vice president of its product group, and created a new
position of chief technology officer.

Dell said it has hired former Apple executive Eric Harslem to the
position of senior vice president of the product group, replacing
Glenn Henry. Henry has been named to the newly created office of
chief technology officer.

Harslem comes to Dell from his position as vice president of Apple's
Macintosh Desktop Division, where he had responsibility for Apple's
multi-billion dollar desktop business. His responsibilities at Apple
included the division's financial management as well as product
design, development, and marketing.

Dell Chairman and CEO Michael Dell says the company's growth over the
past several years calls for a seasoned business manager as well as a
product development expert. Harslem was hired after a search that
stretched over the past several months. In addition to several
positions at Apple, he has held various jobs with Xerox Corporation
and Rand Corporation, has a bachelor's degree in engineering from the
California Institute of Technology and holds a master's degree in
computer science from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Henry moves to his new position after five years at Dell. He joined
the company in 1988 as vice president of research and development,
and nine months later was promoted to senior vice president of the
product group. When Henry joined Dell the engineering staff numbered
seven people. It now employs several hundred, and the company's
product line has increased from three to more than 40. Prior to going
to Dell, Henry spent 21 years at IBM, and is an IBM Fellow, that
company's highest recognition for technical achievement.

(Jim Mallory/19930617/Press contact: Roger Rydell, Dell Computer
Corporation, 512-728-4100; Reader contact: 800-289-3355)


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

 ****Chip Reaches Out And Touches Things 06/17/93
DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1993 JUN 17 (NB) -- It's small, can stick to
things or dangle from your keyring, and it reaches out and touches
things - electronically.

"It" is a coin-shaped data carrier chip from Dallas Semiconductor
that transfers information between it and things as diverse as auto
ignition locks, hospital bracelets, ID badges or bracelets, or food
containers and can be used in place of ink-on-paper labels like bar
codes.

Called Touch Memory, the chip-based label is available with an
adhesive backing that attaches to nearly anything. Used in
conjunction with a reader Dallas Semiconductor calls Proximity, the
device can be used to open locks, identify people, determine the
contents of unlabeled containers, and even guide unattended vehicles
through a factory.

One application is for positive identification of persons authorized
to use a vehicle. Don't want your kids to be able to drive the
family car? Just attach the Touch Memory device to the ignition
system. The car won't start until someone using a properly programmed
Touch device touches the button on the dash. The touch device, about
the size of a dime, can easily reside on your key ring.

In security applications, the system can be programmed to
automatically unlock a door as an employee whose badge has a
Proximity device stuck to it approaches. That's accomplished by a
short range radio link. Two versions of the Proximity device allow
signal recognition from less than two meters or at about 15 meters.

The chip is enclosed in a coin-shaped stainless steel enclosure
called MicroCan which protects it from damage or corrosion. The
MicroCan lid also serves as the point of electrical contact. When the
Touch Probe is contacted, it sends a unique 48-bit serial number and a
cyclic redundance check code (CRC). The company says the code,
written by laser, is unalterable. Marketing and Product Development
VP Mike Bolan told Newsbytes the number is also engraved on the can
lid, and can be read from the outside. The CRC validates the serial
number and allows the electrical connection. An internal scratchpad
area prevents inadvertent writing over existing data, or writing to
the wrong location. Data is first written to the scratchpad,
verified, then written to memory. There's also a secure version of
Touch Memory that requires a 64-bit password to be entered before the
data is transferred.

Data can also be sent directly to a personal computer. A probe can be
built into the PC, or the computer can be retrofitted by plugging in
a Dallas Semiconductor-provided adapter with a DB-25 connector that
plugs into the serial port.

Asked about the future for Touch Memory, Bolan said the company sees
it in terms of its ability to become a labelling technology. "As
paper has served a role in labelling, we think silicon will play an
important role in labelling objects." Asked if Touch Memory will
replace bar coding, Bolan said, "I see it as a technology that
co-exists with bar coding. Where bar codes are lacking, this
technology picks up. One example is when more information needs to be
represented than is practical for bar code density." He also cites
the bi-directional ability of Touch Memory. "The reader and the
writer are the same, and most of read-write capability is built into
the chip." He also spoke about the extremely low energy needs of
Touch Memory.

Bolan doesn't see Touch Memory technology as a replacement for our
key ring in the foreseeable future, but thinks it will replace locks
and keys for things like desks and storage cabinets. "It addresses
some of the complexities of key management systems."

Bolan told Newsbytes Touch Memory is available at $1.59 in lots of
1,000. Dallas Semiconductor has Touch and Proximity evaluation kits
available which can be ordered using a major credit card. The company
says if the kit doesn't meet your needs, you can return it within 30
days for a full refund.

(Jim Mallory/19930617/Press contact: Mary Carol Coffman, Capital
Relations for Dallas Semiconductor, 214-907-9500; Reader contact:
Dallas Semiconductor, 800-336-6933)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00025)

Microsoft Repeats Cautious Growth Outlook 06/17/93
REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1993 JUN 17 (NB) -- In what is becoming
a familiar refrain Microsoft has again cautioned that the company
continues to expect sales and earnings growth rates to be below
historical levels.

The latest warning was sounded by Microsoft Treasurer Michael Brown,
who reportedly told an investor conference in Seattle recently, "We do
not expect to be able to achieve the historical growth rates that we
have achieved in the past. Brown declined to confirm or deny the
accuracy of financial analysts fourth quarter share earnings
estimates of about $0.85 to $0.90 The quarter ends June 30.

Brown also declined to discuss details of the company's growth plans,
saying Microsoft officials are currently planning the fiscal year
1994 budget. But he cautioned investors to keep in mind that the
company does not expect to grow at historic rates despite an increase
in revenues over the past year of about $1 billion. It took Microsoft
about 15 years to reach the $1 billion sales mark.

Brown also pointed out that fourth quarter results may not include
the same earnings boost that large product launches have provided in
past year. He cited the example of last year, when Microsoft released
its Excel spreadsheet and Windows 3.1. This year the company has DOS
6.0 during the current period.

Microsoft recently announced its Microsoft At Work technology
designed to link telephones, fax machines, computers, printers and
copiers, and Microsoft VP of Advanced Technology Nathan Myhrvold told
the British news service Reuters this week that he expects the power
of a typical personal computer will rise from the current 100 MIPS
(million instructions per second) to around 10,000 MIPS by the year
2000.

(Jim Mallory/19930617/Press contact: Microsoft Public Relations,
206-882-8080; Reader contact: Microsoft Corporation, 800-426-9400)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00026)

International Telecom Update 06/17/93
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1993 JUN 17 (NB) -- Worldwide trends
toward competition and privatization remain under challenge,
especially in Europe.

The European Community endorsed a plan under which poorer
countries, notably Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain, could
have 10 years instead of five to adjust to free competition.
The fear is national monopolies in those countries will suffer
as competitors move in. Belgium and Luxembourg won a tentative
two-year delay, and a move to demand quick action on ending
monopolies was brushed aside. Belgium's Belgacom phone unit is
due to cut a list of potential GSM digital cellular partners
from 20 to 5. A final choice is due in July and service will
open next year. The EC is also engaged in a stand-off with
Germany over that nation's separate deal in a telecom trade
dispute with the US. The EC passed rules against US bids for
government telecomm work, but Germany agreed not to apply it,
winning an exemption from US retaliation.

France is behind the criticism of the Germans, as its new
conservative government realizes it's behind the curve in
privatizing and rationalizing the telecom sector, after years
of claiming its France Telecom monopoly was a market leader. The
company's Sodira unit, which would be that nation's GSM digital
cellular provider, sold 20 percent of itself to Cofinoga, the
credit card unit of Galeries Lafayette, and an insurance group
took another five percent stake. Sodira will do business as
Cellway, and compete with a private company, Societe Francaise du
Radiotelephonie, which launched service in April.

Even in Germany and Italy, which approved the move toward market
liberalization, there is no assurance the state role in telecom
will end anytime soon. Germany's ruling Christian Democrats and
its Social Democrat opposition have agreed that the government
will retain a majority stake in Deutsche Bundespost Telekom even
after it's privatized in 1996. Italy's move to privatize its STET
monopoly is held up by problems in reforming tariffed phone
rates, although the government remains committed to selling off
nearly half the unit. Linking the two stories is word that
Germany's Siemens is bidding for a stake in Italtel, the state-
owned equipment maker.

Two stories extend European trends to the Middle East. Bulgaria
is leading a group of five countries which plan to build a new
link to the region through the Balkans. Bulgaria, Italy, Turkey,
Macedonia and Albania all plan to extend digital lines from
Italy through to Istanbul, Turkey. Elsewhere in the region,
Israeli Finance Minister Abraham Shohat promised he will follow
through on moves to privatize that country's Bezek phone
monopoly.

In Eastern Europe, new links continue to come online with help
from Western companies. IDB Worldcom launched service on its new
C-Band earth station in London to Russia. The IDB link is a
cooperative arrangement with the Russian Satellite Communication
Co., and will offer service both to Russia and the Baltic states,
as well as some locations in Eastern Europe, using a Russian
Statsionar 5 satellite at 53 degrees east. US customers can
link to that station through IDB's New York switch, then a fiber
cable link to London.

Ericsson of Sweden, meanwhile, was chosen to supply a digital
mobile radio system for the Hungarian police, and will serve
that contract with equipment made in the US. When fully
installed, the network will serve over 50,000 subscribers
with Ericsson's Enhanced Digital Access Communications System,
or EDACS technology.

Argentina made the South American headlines this week. Sociedad
Comercial del Plata, a local holding company, said it wants to
sell its 5.24 percent stake in Cointel SA, which controls
Telefonica de Argentina. The company may sell it to network
operator Telefonica de Espana. The company paid $18.8 million
for the stake in 1990, and it's now said to be worth $135
million. The company could use the profits to invest in two new
opportunities, as the government has begun the process of
offering cellular concessions in outlying provinces. Those
concessionaires will have a two-year exclusivity, then the
Telecom and Telefonica groups can open their own systems. The
government also deregulated the provision of radio-based
telephone service in rural areas, so farmers can form
cooperatives to link their systems to Telecom and Telefonica.

Finally, in Asia, the Korean government of Kim Young Sam began
the process of dismantling its "chaebol" conglomerates, starting
with Samsung and Hyundai. The head of Hyundai was an unsuccessful
candidate against Kim last year. Critics say the move may hamper
the nation's ability to compete in telecommunications. The
government also said it would definitely pick a new cellular
phone concessionaire by mid-1994. The first award, to Sunkyong
Group and partners, was overturned last year. It's expected the
winner will use Qualcomm's CDMA technology -- all the major
Korean equipment makers agreed to make CDMA equipment earlier
this year.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19930617/Press Contact: Edward Cheramy, IDB,
213-240-3770, Ericsson, Kathy Egan, 212/685-4030)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00027)

Electronic Mail Association Meeting Ends 06/17/93
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1993 JUN 17 (NB) -- As the annual
Electronic Mail Association meeting ended in Atlanta, time was
taken to note the huge volume of news made at the meeting.

Lotus Development's release of version 2.0 of its CC:Mail for
Windows product was almost unnoticed. The LAN-based e-mail
program is a market leader, and now has such things as spell
checking, folders for storing draft and deleted messages, and
user-savable e-mail addresses. The user interface has also been
improved for faster handling of messages and directories. And
support for key Windows technologies like Dynamic Data Exchange,
and Object Linking and Embedding, was also added, along with the
Vendor Independent Messaging application programming interface,
which allows third parties to develop mail-enabled applications.

The new release was unheralded in part because Lotus was so
active in creating alliances to link CC:Mail with both wired and
wireless networks. In addition to its deal with RAM Mobile Data,
under which versions of CC:Mail will be bundled with wireless
modems, MCI said it will work on integrating its MCI Mail network
into CC:Mail Post Offices, allowing users to exchange messages
without the need for a LAN or gateway, or to exchange messages
through MCI Mail with 54 other public electronic mail services in
40 countries. The full range of MCI Mail features are supported
in the offer.

Also, a group headed by AT&T, Apple Computer, Digital Equipment
and Intel announced they have produced a specification called the
Asynchronous Protocol Specification. This will allow multimedia
traffic combining text, voice, images, fax and binary files to be
transferred over the telephone network. Support for APS could
make multimedia a seamless offering of LAN-based mail systems.

Microsoft made two pieces of news. It demonstrated support for
the Common Mail Calls aspect of the XAPIA standard, connecting
CMC to the Microsoft Messaging application programming interface.
The result is developers can write CMC applications that work
with the Microsoft Windows for Workgroups and Microsoft Mail for
PC Networks. Those CMC applications will now work not only with
Microsoft Mail, but also with Microsoft Mail's services for HP
OpenMail, Banyan VINES and AT&T EasyLink. Microsoft also
demonstrated its first version of the CMC dynamic link library,
which allows users of Microsoft Mail version 3.0 and higher to
work together with CMC-enabled applications.

Microsoft's EMA stand also showcased Object Productivity's
"SmartFolders" technology, which can organize and hold all
types, sizes and numbers of documents as objects like clip art,
spreadsheets, and word processing, so users can e-mail a
SmartFolder or group of SmartFolders without fear of losing the
structural integrity of the data.

Banyan announced a new release of its ENS for NetWare Version
1.1. This provides NetWare 4.0 support and more inter-operation
with the VINES environment, as well as new support for Macs,
OS/2, and mainframes. According to James D. D'Arezzo, Banyan vice
president, marketing, "The idea of Banyan delivering enterprise
network services -- like StreetTalk -- to non-Banyan network
operating systems -- like NetWare -- has generated uniformly
positive responses from customers, resellers, and industry
experts alike. Today's announcement adds many new and desirable
features which strengthen ENS for NetWare and expand its
applicability to NetWare 4.0."

(Dana Blankenhorn/19930617/Press Contact: Banyan Systems, Lucia
Graziano, 508/898-1000; Object Productivity, Jack Chamberlin,
313/656-3829; Microsoft, Beverley Flower, 206/882-8080; Lotus
Development; David Grip, 617/862-4514)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00028)

Cable Mess To Be Aired In Congress 06/17/93
WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1993 JUN 17 (NB) -- With President
Clinton still lacking a nominee to head the Federal
Communications Commission chairmanship, he's getting tarred with
the problems that agency is having trying to enforce last year's
cable reregulation act.

The first problem, cited by interim chairman James Quello, is
that the FCC just doesn't have the money to follow-through on
policing the regulations. Thus, it has delayed enforcement for
three months, a move House telecommunications subcommittee chair
Edward Markey charges will cost consumers $250 million in
overcharges. Markey called in Quello and the other two FCC
commissioners to defend the delay, where they told him that they
still need money in order to make the law enforceable.

A bigger problem involves the "retransmission consent" and "must
carry" rules of the act. Under the "must carry" provisions, local
cable companies must transmit all local broadcasting signals if
the local broadcaster demands it. Viacom, among other operators,
are challenging the rule in court, claiming their First Amendment
Rights are being violated. If pressed, they claim they'll knock-
out popular public-interest networks like C-Span in order to put-
on less-popular local ethnic channels.

Broadcasters who don't opt for "must-carry" can demand fees from
cable companies for "retransmission consent." The four major
broadcast networks, which demanded this provision in the act, are
all demanding the fees. The cable industry has united to say they
won't pay, meaning that in October, when the act goes into
effect, the networks will be blacked-out on the nation's cable
systems. National Association of Broadcasters head Eddie Fritts
cited statistics indicating many people will cut-off their cable
subscriptions if this happens, to press his group's demand for
payment. It may be, however, that the stand-off won't be broken
until cable companies see just how many customers they lose when
they turn-off the broadcasters, which could happen during the
baseball play-offs.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19930617/Press Contact: FCC Press, 202-632-
5050)


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

Apple New Products, Upgrades For Energy Savings  06/17/93
CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 JUN 17 (NB) -- Today in
Washington the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) new
Energy Star will officially release the Energy Star emblem for
display on computers and peripherals that meet the agency's
energy conservation guidelines. Apple Computer is boasting it
has twenty products that qualify for the emblem, including
upgrade products users can add to Apple equipment for energy
efficiency.

As a starting place for energy conservation, efforts were made
to make buildings more efficient first. Then attention was
turned to development of standards for business lighting. Now,
the EPA has turned its attention to computers. Estimates are
reducing the energy consumed by computers in the United States
will save enough electricity by the end of the decade to
eliminate 10 coal-fired power plants and reduce greenhouse gas
emissions equivalent to 5 million cars. President Bill Clinton
issued an Executive Order in April that requires all federal
agencies to purchase only computers that meet the Energy Star
requirements, providing they are commercially available and
meet the agency's performance requirements.

But the issue is more than the environment. Energy efficient
computers save money. The EPA estimates that users of Energy
Star computers will save $2 billion annually. Apple estimates
its products could save users as much as fifty percent in
energy consumption costs.

To qualify for an Energy Star, a computer or monitor must use no
more than 30 watts of energy to operate or automatically
"power-down" after a period of inactivity. An integrated
monitor and CPU must use 60 watts or less. The requirements for
desktop printers are specific to particular performance
categories: 1-7 pages-per-minute, 30 watts after 15 minutes; 8-
14 pages-per-minute, 30 watts after 30 minutes; color laser
printers and more than 15 pages-per-minute, 45 watts after 60
minutes.

Apple says its Macintosh Color Classic, introduced in February
of this year, was the first energy efficient computer on the
market. The company also just introduced a new laser printer,
the Apple Personal Laserwriter 300, that goes to "sleep" until
called upon to print.

Software and hardware add-ons for current Apple computers
can also help users meet EPA guidelines for energy savings,
according to Apple representatives. A software upgrade to
the Apple's Laserwriter Pro printer offers energy savings.
In addition, third party developer Sequence Electronics
offers its Smartbar family of energy saving software and
hardware products planned for Apple, DOS, and Unix and
Apple will be a distributor of the energy products for its
platform. The add-on products offered by Apple
range in price from $59 to $129, Apple officials said.

For more information on Apple's energy saving software and
hardware, users are encouraged to call the Apple Assistance
Center,  800-776-2333, or Sequence Electronics, 800-663-1833.

(Linda Rohrbough/19930617/Press Contact: Marianne Lettieri,
Apple Computer, tel [phone], fax [phone]; Bill Kemp,
Sequence Electronics, 800-663-1833; Public Contact, Apple
Assistance Center, 800-776-2333)


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

Apple Denies Sculley Is Leaving  06/17/93
CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 JUN 17 (NB) -- Apple
Computer is denying a report  that John Sculley is planning to
leave the company. An article in USA Today reported Wednesday
that Apple's Chief Executive Officer was planning to leave the
company to run his own high-tech company on the East Coast.

Newsbytes talked with Apple Computer public relations
specialist Kate Paisley who said the USA Today article simply
isn't true. "John has no plans to leave Apple. He is 100
percent committed to the company," Paisley added.

Sculley has, however, talked to several publications about when
he was considered by a search committee recruited by IBM's
board of directors to look for a new CEO. Sculley said he
suggested merging Apple with the "best parts" of IBM, and
contended both companies had the parts to put together a "very
strong business." Sculley said his view was IBM would have a
much better chance for success with Apple on the "team."

The reason Sculley gave for the rejection of his proposal was
in the weakened condition of IBM's stock, acquisition of Apple
would have meant too much dilution. Former chairman and CEO of
Nabisco, Louis Gerstner was the candidate selected by the
committee and Gerstner started at IBM in April.

(Linda Rohrbough/19930617/Press Contact: Kate Paisley, Apple
Computer, tel [phone], fax [phone])