Computer News:  From Bundy Chanock
March 9, 1993

New Development Tool For C Programmers

Cater Software, known for its C/Analyst software, has announced release
of an interactive software development tool for C programmers using the
DOS platform. Called C->It, the program analyzes C source code to build
a model of a program and answer questions about that program through its
built-in query language.

C=>it uses an entity/relationship modelling technique of objects found
in the C source code, and the company says the program can find
recursive functions, task interactions, module dependencies, called and
caller functions, variable cross-references, indirect and direct
references to members of structure, formal and actual parameters to
functions, data type and scope of objects, and location and description
of functions. It can also find the number of occurrences of a type of
object or relationship and can select objects that have a minimum or
maximum number of relationships. According to Cater Software C->It
output can be redirected to a printer or file using command line options
to customize output for a particular printer or display. The program
comes with a static source code analyzer capable of analyzing 100,000
lines of ANSI C code. It's available for DOS platforms as a stand-alone
program for $200 or bundled with C/Analyst for $350.
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General Software's LAN Protocol Analyzer

General Software (GS) has announced a software version of its Ethernet
protocol analyzer The Snooper. The company says the program is available
for bundling with other vendor's software and hardware such as bridges,
routers, and network operating systems. GS will negotiate volume pricing
with OEMs who are willing to duplicate the software in order to ship an
analyzer with each of their products. OEMs will pay a royalty that
ranges from one to 35 dollars per copy depending on volume. GS says the
deal not only allows an OEM company to ship an analyzer worth $350 with
each unit of their product, but it also allows every user to diagnose
problems earlier and will reduce the load on the network provider's
technical support resources.

The Snooper installs directly on any DOS-based PC, AT, 386 or 486-based
personal computer and can interface with nearly any existing network
interface card. It can capture network traffic using any of four
real-time capture display formats, then display the captured packets in
any of three forms, or save them to disk for later analysis. Packets can
be displayed in high-level form or in hexadecimal in the same manner
that hardware-based protocol analyzers and the so-called "disk doctor"
programs do. The third display available is a detailed decoding of each
packet with annotations, with support provided for Novell Netware,
Microsoft LAN Manager, IBM LAN Server, Xerox XNS, and TCP/IP protocol
suits. During capture mode, The Snooper displays incoming traffic
density by packet type with real-time bar graphs displayed on the PC's
screen. Network utilization, packets per second, file sharing requests
per second, number of fragments, and number of oversized packets are
some of the statistics displayed. "I think this is the first time anyone
has offered bundling of a protocol analyzer with network cards. Most
end-users will be pretty surprised when they receive a free analyzer
bundled with their next network interface card," Product Manager Steve
Jones told IDG.
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Word For Word, Word For Windows 5.2

Mastersoft, the company that publishes the Word for Word (WFW) line of
document conversion utilities, says it is now shipping the latest
release of WFW Word for Windows, version 5.2. Word For Word, which was
reviewed by IDG in December of 1991 and received a 4.0, our highest PUMA
review rating score, converts files from one format to another. You can
convert a DOS or Windows document from the Word for Windows format to
the Ami Pro format without losing special formatting like bold or
underline. You can even convert a document from a DOS-based program
format to a Macintosh-based program, and its all done with menus. Just
select the document, point at the original format and the format you
want to change it to, and your done. The company shipped a Macintosh
version of Word For Word in August 1990 and the Windows version in
December 1992. Principal features of the new release are the addition of
several new converters to the existing list and upgrades to some of the
existing conversion routines.

Mastersoft says that additions to the conversion list include Legacy
versions 1.x and 2.0; Wordstar for Windows version 1.x; and Framemaker
(MIF). The new routines for converting documents are for Ami
Professional 3.0, PFS:First Choice 3.0, WordStar 7.0, and Wordperfect
5.2. WFW Word For Windows has expanded the "Open" and "Save As" menus
within Microsoft Word to allow over 40 additional import options. The
program has a suggested retail price of $79.95, and registered owners
can upgrade to version 5.2 for $39.95 by calling or faxing Mastersoft.
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Fujitsu Sells Supercomputer To US Petroleum Firm

Fujitsu America says it has sold its first VPX series supercomputer
since entering the US supercomputer market last March. One area where
supercomputers can still count on a few sales is in the scientific
arena. Another is in oil exploration. According to Fujitsu, GECO-PRAKLA,
part of the Schlumberger Oilfield Services group, will install the
company's VPX220 model vector supercomputer for large computational
demands associated with three dimensional (3-D) seismic processing at
its Houston computing center. The company says that a major tool used by
oil companies to locate exploration and development wells is 3-D
seismic. In announcing the order, Thomas Miller, Fujitsu America vice
president, Supercomputer Group, said: "The Fujitsu VPX220 system is the
fastest single central processing unit system ever installed for use by
the US petroleum industry."

The company claims that industry experts estimate that the US seismic
acquisition and data processing services industry totals approximately
$600 million in annual revenues. GECO-PRAKLA says that vector
supercomputers are at the heart of its operations, alongside
workstations for data quality control and highly parallel systems for
specialized applications. According to the company, images of the
subsurface geology are created through 3-D seismic technology. First,
trillions of data points are created by sending sound waves underground
to measure the distance traveled from rock layers to the earth's
surface. Subsequently, the supercomputer processes the resulting data
points to form a detailed image of the subsurface geology. Oil companies
then use the information to target exploratory and developmental wells
to locate and produce oil and gas reserves.
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Artisoft LANtastic Interconnectivity Kit

Hoping to appeal to companies requiring interconnectivity between
networking platforms, Artisoft has announced the NDIS Support for
LANtastic Kit. According to the company, the kit allows LANtastic users
to interconnect with other operating environments as well as providing
an NDIS (Network Driver Interface Specification) interface to the
LANtastic NetBIOS. Joe Stunkard, spokesman for Artisoft told IDG that
"The number one target market would be corporate workgroup environments.
A product like this will allow them to establish a departmental or a
workgroup network using LANtastic. In these corporations you will find
different types of networks, such as NetWare, or a Unix environment, or
possibly a mainframe environment. By incorporating the standard NDIS
support for those platforms it will allow LANtastic to go out and access
the different environments as well."

According to the company, the NDIS Support for LANtastic Kit is
scheduled to ship this month, along with version 5.0 of the LANtastic
network operating system). It will be priced at $199 per network. The
company says that the NDIS Support for LANtastic Kit allows users to
load or stack multiple protocols allowing transparent access across
different computing platforms, with the protocols being loaded and
accessed concurrently without interrupting the LANtastic network
connection. The NDIS Support for LANtastic Kit enables a wide range of
adapters that come with NDIS drivers to be compatible with the
LANtastic/AI network - the company's adapter-independent version of the
LANtastic network operating system. The AI-NDIS driver included in the
kit also links Artisoft's, as well as third-party, NDIS drivers with the
LANtastic network's NetBIOS. LANtastic now offers multiplatform
connectivity for NetWare, TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet
Protocol) and Macintosh systems. It allows up to 500 users of
IBM-compatible computers to connect and share information and peripheral
devices.

Speaking of the competition for LANtastic, Stunkard told IDG that, "One
of the nice things about us being in a peer-to-peer market, is that
there are very few other products that compete with us at the high-end
level. Certainly there are other products, such as the higher forms of
NetWare, which are very capable of providing multi-platform support, but
LANtastic is able to do that, in this case, for a much lower cost. As
far as other peer-to-peer products, there are really not that many that
go out and access multi-platform environments like LANtastic. It
separates us from other peer-to-peer players."
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42 To Attend Privacy Conference Free Of Charge

The Third Annual Conference on Computers, Freedom, & Privacy (CFP'93),
has handed out 42 full tuition scholarships to its event. CFP'93 is to
be held from Wednesday, March 10th through Friday, March 12th at the San
Francisco Airport Marriott. It is preceded by a day of tutorials on the
subjects to covered at the conference and scholarship winners are also
entitled to attend the conference. Scholarships were awarded to
individuals from diverse interests and geographical backgrounds and to
qualify, individuals had to demonstrate that attendance would benefit
them and their community, according to Bruce Koball, conference chair,
and scholarship chair, John McMullen. They also had to prove that they
could not attend the conference without the scholarship, and to agree to
write a two-page summary of their reactions to the conference.

McMullen says that applications were received from all over the United
States, Canada, and Europe from computer scientists, students, hackers,
law enforcement officials, privacy advocates, and "even film-makers and
a poet. The diversity of the group and the strong backgrounds of all of
the applicants made the final decisions very difficult," McMullen says.
McMullen also said that the funding for the scholarships was the result
of solicitations by the CFP governing board and that the number of
scholarships is approximately the same as last year. He said, "The
number is always somewhat touch-and-go and some winners and losers do
not find out until the last minute as we look for more funding."
Conference chair Koball, commenting on the scholarships, said, "We felt
that sponsoring a substantial number of scholarships was essential to
the goals of the CFP conference; to ensure that no group was excluded
from the important dialogs that take place there. The recipients include
students, academics, law enforcement officials and others of limited
means who bring important viewpoints to CFP'93."

Among the winners of the scholarships were Dr. Jagtar Singh, a computer
scientist currently teaching in England; hacker "Phiber Optik;" Bell
Northern Telcom researcher Ellen Spoonamore; poet Marguerite Peterson,
high school student Michael Minnich, attorney Joshua Blackman; pioneer
hacker John Draper, a/k/a "Capt'n Crunch;" software developer Marilyn
Davis; filmmaker Karen Lee; public activist Carolyn Strauss; and a
number of college, graduate, doctoral, and law students. Spoonamore, an
attendee at the 1992 conference held in Washington DC, told IDG, "I
learned so much last year and am so gratified to be able to attend this
year's conference. The interplay between so many people with diverse
points of view was fascinating as well as informative. I think that I
crammed years worth of study into one week last year. I am looking
forward to the same type of conference this year" Among the speakers at
this year's conference are Nicholas Johnson, former chairman of the FCC,
John Perry Barlow, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation; and
Clifford Stoll, astrophysicist and author of "The Cuckoo's Egg."
---

Autodesk Intros Cyberspace Developer Kit

Two of the hottest technologies in the industry today are object-
oriented programming and virtual reality. Autodesk has combined both in
its new Cyberspace Developer Kit. According to the company, the product
consists of a complete toolset for three-dimensional (3-D) visualization
and simulation. The kit contains a set of C++ class libraries, and
allows developers to "build practical, PC-based applications in which
users interact with 3D worlds in real time." Autodesk has been involved
in virtual reality research since 1988. Richard Dym, general manager of
Autodesk's Multimedia Division, said, "We view virtual reality as the
logical step in design automation, because it adds interactive 3D
visualization and simulation capabilities to the drafting and design
process. Virtual reality technology is critical to maintaining
Autodesk's leadership in computer-aided design over the long term."

According to the company, the Cyberspace Developer Kit allows for the
easy importing, exporting, creation and manipulation of 3-D objects, and
includes support for Autodesk's 3D Studio software and .DXF file
formats. The kit also facilitates realistic simulations, claims the
company, by assigning objects and environments real physical properties,
such as mass and density, and apply forces such as gravity, friction,
and spring. The Cyberspace Developer Kit comprises C++ class libraries,
documentation, diagnostic utilities and sample applications with source
code. The product carries a suggested retail price of $2,495. The
product requires a 386- or 486-based PC with 8 megabytes (MB) of RAM and
an 80MB hard drive. The kit supports a number of graphics accelerator
boards and displays, and can also run on a VGA monitor with a VESA
(Video Electronics Standards Association) standard driver. MS-DOS 3.1 or
higher is also required. Also needed is either the Zortech 386 C++ 3.0
or Metaware High C/C++ 3.0 compiler, in addition to the Phar Lap linker
and 386/DOS extender SDK.
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Cookbook Organizes Grocery Lists In Store Order

If you've ever been frustrated with making laps in the grocery store
because the items on your shopping list are not in the order they are in
the grocery store, Pinpoint Publishing has a surprise for you. The
company says the new version of Micro Cookbook allows you not only to
plan your menu, but it organizes the shopping items according to the
grocery store section. Micro Cookbook 4.0 has just been released for
Microsoft Windows and the company says it offers 1,000 recipes, meal
planning, nutrition analysis, and the preparation of shopping lists
grouped together by grocery categories. Users can add recipes, menus,
and non-food items to the lists and rearrange the lists on the fly as
well.

Also, if you want to know what you can make with what's already in the
refrigerator, Micro Cookbook can do that as well. The program can find
recipes by name, category, or ingredients and will print recipes on
standard pages or index cards. New cookbooks with new recipes are also
planned, the company said. The first titles are "Cooking A to Z" that
comes with 750 recipes in a hard copy as well, and a Family Circle
cookbook. Micro Cookbook for Windows retails for $59.95, but current
Micro Cookbook users may upgrade for $29.99. A DOS version of the
product is expected in April.
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Macintosh Utility Speeds CD-ROM Drives 1800%

FWB, makers of the Hammer line of hard disk drives, has announced a new
CD-ROM Toolkit for the Macintosh which it says can increase compact disc
read-only memory (CD-ROM) performance up to 1800 percent. The company
says the product is a Desk Accessory software driver that replaces the
user's current software driver on the Macintosh. The software speeds up
CD-ROM access by caching and prefetching repeatedly used information.
Caching is a technique based on the principle that the information the
user needs next will probably be the information in the next physical
space on the spinning CD-ROM disc. So when the information a user
requests is sought, the software "reads ahead" information that is
spinning by anyway and stores it in memory, then checks the memory first
when the next request for information is made. This technique
significantly increases performance, as information in memory is much
easier and faster accessed than information on the disc. Prefetching is
a similar process to caching.

FWB says "find file" operations that took 28 seconds before acceleration
only take 1.1 seconds after installation of CD-ROM Toolkit, or opening
all folders on the "World Fact Book" disc from Wayzata is accelerated to
only take 14 seconds as opposed to 38 seconds. The Toolkit operates
transparently and allows users to allocate additional hard disk space or
memory to caching for faster performance. FWB says the Toolkit also
offers Kodak Photo CD support to most of the popular CD-ROM drives, such
as those from Toshiba, Sony, Chinon, Pioneer, Apple, NEC, and Phillips,
and has an audio control Desk Accessory for management of audio
playback. Support for Apple HFS, ISO 9660, ProDOS and MS-DOS discs is
built in as well. The CD-ROM Toolkit just began shipping, FWB said.
Retail price is $79, although street prices are expected to be in the
$49 range.
---

NEC CD-ROM Stores 4 Times More Data

NEC says it has developed a technology capable of storing four times
more data on a CD-ROM than conventional technology allows. With this
technology, data for a one-hour motion picture can be stored on a single
CD-ROM, making this medium ideal for multimedia personal computers. NEC
has come up with an original mastering process to draw a narrower pitch,
.25 micron, on a CD-ROM disc. This width is much smaller than the 0.3
micron width of regular CD-ROMs. In order to draw this narrower pitch,
NEC has used a shortwave with a wavelength of 363.8 nanometers and a
high-quality lens. As a result, NEC was able to create a CD-ROM that
quadruples data storage, to about 2 gigabytes of data. About 4 hours of
pictorial data can be stored on this disc with the help of digital
compression technology. This is a lot more than current CD-ROMs, which
can store only about half a gigabyte, or 15 minutes of uncompressed
digital pictorial data. The quality of color pictures on this disc is
quite good, according to NEC, which boasts that the quality is almost
equivalent to that of a laser disk.

NEC has started to develop a CD-ROM drive that will read data from these
discs with extremely sensitive semiconductor lasers at 500 nanometers.
The drive is expected to reach the market in a couple of years.
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IBM Japan's Efforts Lead To 10 New Subsidiaries

IBM Japan's Second Carrier Support Program is being termed a success.
The program was set up for IBM Japan's employees who are over 50 years
in age so that they could create their own firms. The idea was the
brainchild of an effort to humanely cut employees from the payroll
dating back to the 1980s, and is the second such effort from IBM.

About 3,000 employees are involved in this program, all have pledged to
resign from IBM this June in exchange for IBM's help in setting up their
own businesses. Among the new firms that have been created are a repair
service firm and a distribution company. Other firms were previously
created by IBM with its employees over the age of 60, in the firm's
first carrier support program. In that effort, IBM and the ex-employees
created 9 firms which include a language translation firm, a publishing
firm, and a personnel dispatching service company. IBM Japan will pay an
additional retirement fee -- half to two year's salary -- depending on
the age of the retiree. IBM Japan has reportedly allocated 17 billion
yen ($140 million) for the support of nearly 1,000 employees in this
program this fiscal year. The program is expected to help IBM Japan,
which is suffering from a business slowdown. The firm suffered a
33-percent loss in profit as of December over the previous term.
---

NYNEX Cellular Code Coming to You?

As the US runs short of valid area codes and prepares to make 640 more
combinations available starting in 1995, debate on how to assign them is
intensifying. NYNEX, the Bell company for New York and New England, may
have hit upon the germ of a solution. Instead of dividing the 212 area
code, which serves Manhattan, the company has created a new area code,
917, serving just cellular phones. Barbara Kaufman of Bellcore, the Bell
companies' research consortium, which is in charge of the numbering
plan, says that 917 is an interim solution, and eventually some offices
on Manhattan may also get the 917 area code, but the concept of such
"overlays" is intriguing, and "I don't think it will be limited to
cellular." Overlays also look good when political pressures get in the
way of geographic decisions on area codes. For instance, in Atlanta,
state regulators listened to local businesses in dividing the 404 area
code for Atlanta with the new 706 code for the rest of North Georgia.
The result was that so few numbers were assigned to the new 706 code
that 404 will be have to be divided again in a few years.

Some area codes are also losing the geographic coherence which used to
make them useful. For instance, California regulators have had to divide
the city of Los Angeles between two codes recently, with the west side
of town leaving 213 for the new 310 code. And dialing an area code is no
longer a guarantee of a toll charge. Calls from Chicago's 312 area to
Evanston in 708 are still local calls, as are calls from New York's 212
to Brooklyn's 718. On the other hand, many calls within south Georgia's
912 area code are toll calls, even when the call is only going a few
miles.

Codes could lose all geographic coherence in future years, as new codes
like 232 and 585 are assigned. The codes have already lost logical
coherence, Kaufman notes. In years past, an area code always had a 1 or
0 as its central digit, and dialing prefixes did not. Today dialing
prefixes are no longer restricted, and soon area codes won't be, either.
The result will be that 10- digit dialing, even for local calls, will
become common in many cities, and those numbers will become increasingly
hard to memorize. "Overlay may be the right way to go," says Kaufman, at
least letting people know that, in dialing one set of three- digits
they're getting a cellular phone, with a second set for a pager, a third
set for a fax machine, and perhaps a fourth set for a voice phone. The
alternative is to keep dividing cities between area codes until they
become useless as identifiers. Going forward, Kaufman adds, into the
middle of the next century, it may be that dialing codes will have to be
further extended, with as many as four additional numbers added to each
phone number. The good news is that the increased computerization of the
phone network may lead to individuals, not instruments, having their own
phone numbers. You may simply say "call mom's fax" into your phone and
the phone itself would look-up mom's fax number.
---

A Smarter Way To Process Credit Cards

Verifone, the largest maker of those tiny magnetic-stripe readers used
by merchants taking credit cards, announced a new software system using
PCs which will let stores take credit cards and small banks handle the
transactions the cards even where local telecom networks are poor. The
system, called Omnihost, does a lot of the work handled by mainframes in
the US, like authorizing the use of bank or credit cards, and capturing
electronic drafts. The product also converts authorization messages
among formats used by many different brands of computers and terminals.
The idea, said Roger Bertman, VeriFone's vice president of marketing and
general manager of the Network Systems Division in a press statement, is
to let banks in places like Latin America and Asia, where networks are
poor, offer credit services, and encourage stores in those areas to use
the services.

A store in the US will simply swipe a credit card through a Verifone
reader, setting in motion a complex call over a packet network to a
distance mainframe. A web of computer connections is then activated,
with separate bank mainframes holding the customer's credit records and
the store's bank records. More packet links are needed to link these
banks' machines back to the store's terminal where the clerk is waiting
patiently to see an "authorization number" which will let him or her
complete the transaction with some assurance the store will be paid.
Usually, all these banks machines must exchange their messages and make
their calls or the transaction will "time out." If a call times out,
large transactions are usually rejected and small ones accepted.

The problem is that in the Third World, networks are often down or in
poor condition. Nearly every transaction would "time out" if the system
were like that in the US, and the risk of non- payment on transactions
considered trivial here would bankrupt both stores and their banks. By
handling as much of the transaction as possible at or near the cash
register, on a PC within the city which can handle small numbers of
transactions, sale, merchants in such countries can still take credit
cards. US merchants, like fast food places or gas stations, are also
moving toward handling some functions in this way. Only in these cases
the functions are handled directly within the merchant's terminal, with
the aim being to eliminate that 15-second wait. These stores now have
"hot card" lists reloaded into memory chips on the terminals each night,
often by satellite, so the stores can handle a small sale within 3-5
seconds. The day's receipts are then sent in one "batch," during the
night, with the satellite system polling each store to reload the
hot-card list and collect the receipts. It may be that a variation on
this system could prove the stiffest competition for Omnihost.

Omnihost is available in versions using a local area network or
file server which can handle either a single store, a chain's
multiple locations, or many different stores within a small area.
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IBM Promotes PenAssist For Pen Developers

At Mobile World, IBM ramped up promotion of PenAssist, a program aimed
at spurring applications development for PenDOS as well as PenPM/2, the
pen extensions to OS/2. On the show floor, IBM staff distributed
PenAssist brochures and talked up program benefits. These encompass
software and hardware discounts, access to IBM test centers, and a
variety of information services, including a new Pen and Mobile Software
Systems Forum on Compuserve. IBM will be now be adding a series of
Software Conversion Workshops, and would like to attract many more
PenAssist participants, said an IBM employee working in the exhibition
booth. All PenAssist services except the software and hardware discounts
are available free of charge. The discount service carries a $500 annual
fee.

Eligible to take part in PenAssist are developers of pen applications,
developers of commercially available applications, and corporations that
are creating pen applications for their own use. PenAssist discounts
include 50% off the regular price on selected IBM printers and features,
along with special deals on pen hardware from IBM and other vendors, the
PenDOS SDK (software developer's kit), and pen applications. Also as
part of the discount service, the Pen PM/2 SDK is provided free of
charge. The upcoming Software Conversion Workshops to be sponsored by
PenAssist will deal with converting DOS applications to PenDOS and OS/2
applications to PenPM/2. The IBM Test Centers open to PenAssist
participants are located in Palo Alto, CA, Atlanta, GA, and Hamden, CT.
Each center is equipped with digitizing pads, plus an IBM PS/2 installed
with the PenDOS SDK, PenPM/2 SDK, and PenPoint SDK.

Other program benefits include trade show support for selected
developers, a pen application catalog, and direct e-mail communications
with IBM's software developer's support organization. Also free of
charge, IBM will list any application for the PenAssist Program on its
National Solution Center database. IBM uses the database to help find
developers and applications that are good fits with customer requests.
The new Pen and Mobile Software Systems Forum on Compuserve is open to
program participants and nonparticipants alike. IBM is monitoring the
forum to provide responses to inquiries on PenAssist, along with other
topics related to pen and mobile systems. To access the forum on
Compuserve, type GO THINKPAD. Faxback information on IBM's pen and
mobile systems and other products can also be obtained by participants
as well as nonparticipants. Call 404-238-4264. For answers to questions
specifically related to PenAssist, call 404-238-2200.
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Signing Documents Remotely By Pen Computer

A new system called TeleSignature 2000 is letting on-the-road pen
computers users sign their names remotely to checks, contracts, and
other hard copy documents stored at a central site. Introduced at Mobile
World, the new product from SDB Systems includes Virtual Writer 1.0
software for a pen and a desktop PC, plus the TeleSignature 2000
Scanner/Writer, an external device that combines the capabilities of a
scanner and pen/plotter. Also required are a 386 or higher pen PC, a
386SX or higher desktop PC, a modem for each computer, and a portable
printer. Both PCs must be running DOS. In an interview with IDG, Neal
Kramer, executive vice president, said that TeleSignature 2000 allows
managers to give an instant "go ahead" on important business matters
from virtually anywhere in the world.

Contracts can be pinned down and purchases made even though the
executive isn't physically present, he elaborated. The system
incorporates software data encryption, security systems for the
Scanner/Writer, and other features designed to prevent tampering. The
online document signing process begins in the home office, when an
employee inserts the document to be signed into the Scanner/Writer. The
employee then sets the software on the host PC to accept an incoming
call. The remote user dials the home office from the pen PC. The office
unit receives the call, scans the document, and transmits an image of
the requested document to the pen computer. The remote user then reviews
the scanned document on the pen PC, places a signature on the image, and
sends the image back. Next, the signature is rendered in hard copy by
the Scanner/Writer at the home office.

Finally, the home office unit sends a verification copy of the signed
document to the remote user. The user prints out the verification copy
on the portable printer. Walter Peterson, vice president of engineering,
explained that the pen/plotter function in the Scanner/Writer is
responsible for duplicating the image. The Scanner/Writer also holds the
document firmly in place throughout the signature session. A security
lock on the Scanner/Writer keeps documents safe from meddling, he added.
Any attempt to open the lock during a session disables the plotter and
sounds a warning message on the signer's pen PC screen. Another security
system disables the plotter at any attempt to modify the electronic
circuitry. The system also uses public/private data encryption to
encrypt both the image and the captured signature before transmission
over the phone lines. Encrypted copies of the signed document are filed
on both the desktop and pen PC. The document can then be reviewed, but
not modified, from either end of the system. Signatures produced via
TeleSignature 2000 are considered legal for all but a few types of
documents, such as wills, where the signing must be witnessed, according
to the company.

TeleSignature 2000 started to be shipped last week. The complete system,
including Scanner/Writer and Virtual Writer software, is priced at
$4,995. The software can also be purchased separately, at $250 each for
the desktop and pen computer packages. Peterson told IDG that the user
can gain some but not all the benefits of TeleSignature by buying the
Virtual Writer software only, and using a scanner or fax machine in
place of the Scanner/Writer. Under the scanner or fax machine scenario,
the remote user accesses a stored image of his or her own signature, and
then affixes the signature to the document. SDB Systems expects
TeleSignature 2000 to be especially popular in countries where overnight
mail is either nonexistent or very expensive.

Prior to releasing the product, the Fort Myers, FL-based company had
already received more than 120 direct orders from overseas, along with
requests for US distributorships in Boston, Atlanta, Dallas, Memphis,
Miami, Tampa, Orlando, and Washington, DC. Distributors are being set up
now. Other activities in the works include a version of TeleSignature
2000 for notebook PCs, which will also use stored signatures, and two
system enhancements. One enhancement, voice signaling, will supply voice
prompts for guiding users through the document signing process. Another,
signature verification, will prevent forgery by recognizing signatures
based on the amount of pressure used when signing, as well as how the
letters are shaped.
---

Cable & Wireless Exits Canada

Cable & Wireless North America is selling off two divisions, effectively
ending its operations in Canada. The company wants to concentrate on the
United States market instead, officials said. Cable & Wireless has
announced the sale of its Network Services Division to Call-Net, a
Toronto long-distance reseller, for about $35 million in cash and notes.
This deal closed March 4. Call-Net is the largest long-distance reseller
in Canada, officials said.

Cable & Wireless also announced the sale of its Business Systems
Division in Canada to Ericatel Ltd., a privately held Canadian company.
This division sells telecommunications equipment and services. Terms of
the sale to Ericatel were not disclosed. A spokeswoman for Cable &
Wireless North America said these were the company's only operations in
the Canadian market. Increasing competition in the Canadian
long-distance telephone market was not a major factor in the move, the
spokeswoman said. Cable & Wireless still has a link with BCE Inc., the
holding company that controls Bell Canada and Northern Telecom, through
BCE's 20-percent stake in the British carrier Mercury, which Cable &
Wireless controls.
---

Unisys Adds Five 486 PCs

Unisys has added five personal computers, all based on Intel 486
processors, to its PW2 Advantage entry-level PC line. The new models
include two low-profile desktops and three larger systems that can serve
as desktop PCs or as network servers. Like all of Unisys' Advantage
line, the new models are aimed directly at local area network users
running Microsoft's Windows operating environment. To that end, the
machines have Novell NetWare certification, and all five come with
accelerated video controllers and local-bus video using the Video
Electronics Standards Association (VESA) standard. The two low-profile
models are the Model 4253, with a 25-megahertz 486SX chip, and the Model
4333, with a 33-megahertz 486DX chip. Both come with four megabytes of
memory as standard equipment, and with three Industry Standard
Architecture (ISA) expansion slots, three bays for storage devices such
as disk drives, integrated Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) and
Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) controllers, and a choice of hard
disks.

The hard disk options for the low-profile models are 85, 127, 244.5,
338, 525, and 1050 megabytes formatted capacity. With the 127-megabyte
hard drive, the Model 4253 lists for $1,549 and the Model 4256 for
$1,799. The PW2 Advantage models 4256, 4336, and 4666 all come with four
megabytes of memory, six ISA slots, five drive bays, integrated SCSI and
IDE controllers, and the same hard-disk options as the smaller machines.
The 4256 has a 25-megahertz 486SX controller, and lists for $1,949 with
a 127-megabyte hard drive. The 4336 has a 33-megahertz 486DX processor
and lists for $2,599 with a 244.5-megabyte drive. The 4666 uses a
66-megahertz 486DX2 chip and lists for $3,249 with a 338-megabyte drive.

The new machines differ from the PW2 Advantage Plus PCs Unisys announced
in February in three fundamental ways, company spokesman Oliver Picher
said. First, the Advantage Plus machines use the Extended Industry
Standard Architecture (EISA) bus. Second, the Advantage Plus machines
can be upgraded to the upcoming Intel Pentium processor, while the
latest machines will be upgradable to the P24T, an Intel Overdrive
processor using Pentium technology that is designed specifically for
upgrades. Third, the Advantage Plus systems use higher-performance video
circuitry and SCSI adapters. All five new PW2 Advantage PCs are
available now, Unisys said.
---

Michelangelo Virus Scare - NOT!

This year the media hype surrounding the March 6 anniversary of
Michelangelo Buonarroti's birth and the computer vandal who has chosen
to honor this great artist with a computer virus was only a shadow of
its former self. Although there were several thousand reports of
discovery and erasure of the virus last year, this time the number of
incidents appears to be far lower. In fact, IDG has not been able to
verify any reports of Michelangelo attacks this year which caused actual
damage. A spokesperson for RG Software, Scottsdale, Arizona-based
publisher of the VI-SPY anti-virus software, told IDG today that they
had been receiving reports from their customers about finding and
eliminating both the Stoned and Michelangelo virus over the past six
months but had not yet heard of any actual damage caused by the virus.

If a virus is located and removed from a system before its triggering
event (the computer date of March 6 in the case of the Michelangelo
virus) then no files are lost and no damage is done to the system. Even
last year when an absolute maximum of only about 0.01 percent of the
world's MS-DOS computers actually experienced a Michelangelo infection
(and were in most cases cleared of the problem before it caused any real
damage), the total number of reported incidents did not in any way
correspond to the vast media play given the potential for damage. More
reports may be in by tomorrow because as this report is being written
many West Coast US companies are just now powering up their computers
and don't yet know if they have experienced any problem. Still, it is
unlikely that the Michelangelo virus has done much damage this year, in
part due to those companies operating large local area networks which
are more conscientious about anti-virus security.
---

Exebug Virus Causes Problems In South Africa

Reports from South Africa of problems with the Exebug virus have
prompted anti-virus researchers to explain why the virus has become so
common. According to Dr. Alan Solomon, header of S&S International, the
anti- virus company, the South African problem stems from a variant of
the virus known as Exebug.2 or Exebug.d. Solomon told IDG that this
variant has introduced a nasty little trick which targets standard
anti-virus procedures. Conventional anti-virus procedures insist, that
for effective detection and removal of a virus, a user must boot from a
clean, write-protected DOS diskette. According to Solomon, When the
Exebug.2 virus infects a machine, it inserts itself in the partition
sector so that, when the PC boots up, Exebug is the first thing that is
loaded into memory. Exebug also alters the PC's battery-backed memory
settings, telling the PC it does not have an A: drive.

If a user suspects an infection and tries to cold boot, the virus loads
from the partition sector and then switches to the A: drive and
continues the boot from there. The user, meanwhile, seeing the A: prompt
on the screen, believes that the machine is clean and that anti-virus
software will be able to detect an infection. In fact, since the virus
is already in memory and is using full stealth technology, any
anti-virus software which does not scan memory will be unable to detect
the presence of the virus. Even if the software does detect the virus,
removing the virus from the partition sector, or issuing the "FDISK
/MBR" command, or even doing a low-level format, will fail to eradicate
the virus -- as long as the virus remains in memory. If the virus is
suspected or is reported by your anti-virus software, Solomon advises
that it is wise to re-boot the machine, halt it during the re-boot
cycle, then enter the Set-up Facility (usually accessed by pressing
Delete) and make sure that the A: drive is shown in the CMOS settings.

Once the settings have been verified, Solomon advises that the user
should continue the boot from the A: drive and then scan for the virus
as normal.
---

Groupe Bull Problems Mount

Groupe Bull, the troubled French state-controlled computer manufacturer,
has announced plans to shave 3,000 jobs from the company payroll. The
move is to help compensate for the company's $940 million loss reported
in 1992. The job cuts move came shortly after company chairman, Bernard
Pache, announced that the 1992 losses had increased to $940 million from
$660,000 a year earlier. Pache confirmed that the last profits the
company earned were in 1988.

This latest round of job cuts will hit the company hard, analysts say.
In 1992, the company shaved 4,700 from the payroll, working hard to
avoid any effect on overall levels of service. This latest round of job
cuts is bound to affect service levels, industry experts agree. The main
reasons behind the splurt of red ink on Bull's 1992 figures seems to be
a steep rise in provisions for future losses, plus spiralling costs. If
the provisions for future losses are removed, then the net loss for 1992
is a more modest $454 million. Despite the red ink, Pache said that the
company's operating margins have improved in 1992, the second year this
has happened. Operating losses, seen by many as an indicator to the
fortunes of the company. have fallen to $122.5 million -- down 44
percent on the operating losses reported for 1991. Overall revenue,
however, has fallen. During 1992, Bull reported revenues at $6,040
million -- down just 10 percent on 1991. Detailed examination of the
results revealed that the company has taken a hit due to currency
fluctuations, although Pache said that the current recession in Europe,
coupled with the price wars in the PC marketplace have had their effect
on overall levels of income. The future, Pache said, looks good for
Bill. In announcing the 1992 results, he said that Bull will continue to
reduce costs, while continuing to invest for the future.
---

French Phonetapping Furor Develops

Liberation, the French newspaper, has caused a storm of controversy
after it published documents illustrating the counter-espionage tactics
of President Mitterand's security staff of the mid-1980s who were
investigating government activities of the time. The paper claims to
have obtained transcripts of telephone taps from the French security
service that show journalist Edwy Plenel's home phone had been bugged in
late 1985 and early 1986, the period when he was investigating allegedly
shady deals by President Mitterand's staff -- the same staff, the paper
notes, that tapped his phone. At the time, Plenel was gathering
information on the security service's activities surrounding the alleged
planting of evidence on three suspected Irish terrorists. Plenel's
investigations resulted in charges of terrorism against the three being
dropped and the whole case surrounding them was called into question
after they were found to have been "framed."

While President Mitterand and his government have declined to comment on
the reports, Plenel and the paper he works for, Le Monde, have said they
intend to take the government to court over the affair, alleging illegal
phone tapping and an invasion of privacy. As in the US, phone tapping by
government agents is a carefully controlled exercise, with even
engineers from France Telecom not allowed to take part in the actual
bugging. Special papers signed by high ranking government officials must
be issued before France Telecom will allow government agents to place an
off-premises tap on the phone.

Interestingly, several of the then-government seniors have been
interviewed by Liberation, all of whom note that the wire tap may not
have been fully authorized. Louis Schweitzer, who was President
Mitterand's chief of staff at the time of the alleged tap, said that he
did not recall the Plenel incident. He also said that his own policy was
to refuse to place phone taps on journalists or lawyers. Ordinarily, IDG
notes, it would be the word of a journalist against that of a government
minister in a case such as this. The fact that Liberation has published
documentary transcripts adds strength to Plenel's claims that his
personal affairs were followed, even without formal government
authority. Plenel could prove to be a bundle of trouble for the French
Government. He is a widely reknowned and respected journalist for his
role in reporting the "Rainbow Warrior" affair in which two French
secret service agents were discovered to have blow up the Greenpeace
boat of the same name in Auckland, New Zealand, in 1985. The affair
caused a ripple of anger at the time as supporters of Greenpeace
realized that their boat had been blown up by foreign agents rather than
terrorists as was claimed.

Liberation's revelations could not have come at a worse time for the
French Government, IDG notes. With Plenel elevated to the status of a
national hero after the Rainbow Warrior affair, President Mitterand, in
the final stages of his campaign for re-election on March 21, is already
in a shaky position in the polls.
---

Kahn Talks Price Wars

Borland's President Philippe Kahn says the price war started by
Microsoft has driven Borland to cut costs to remain profitable. However,
Kahn said he believes Borland can survive the Microsoft onslaught, but
added he doesn't know how long the software price wars will last. Kahn
spoke at an editor's meeting the day before the opening of the Windows
Summit '93 conference in Carlsbad, California this week, There's no
longer any way for Borland to sell spreadsheet and database products for
$495, Kahn said. "It's a shock to discover a company as big as Microsoft
is going to jump into your market with a product priced at $99, and is
going to spend millions to promote it," Kahn said. Microsoft was
originally going to sell Access for $99 for a limited time, but when
Borland realized the company was going to keep Access at that cost, it
had to move quickly, Kahn said. The move forced Borland to rethink its
business model and to cut costs to survive. "If we had stayed with a
business model that dictated we sell our products at $495, I'd probably
be looking for a job right now," said Kahn.

Kahn said the pricing structure of Paradox for Windows, Quattro Pro for
Windows and newly introduced Turbo C++ Visual Edition for Windows makes
the items an impulse buy. Individually the products retail for $99 to
$139 and the Paradox for Windows and Quattro Pro for Windows bundle is
$199. When asked if loyal customers were insulted that they're getting
the same upgrade price as newcomers, Kahn said actually the established
users were worried the products wouldn't survive in the marketplace and
the new pricing structure has attracted new users -- making all the
company's customers very happy. Kahn said Borland is doing better than
analysts had predicted in its last financial statement, and that's
because the company has been aggressive about cutting costs. One cost
cutting measure is offering one package for each product for one price,
instead of making different offers and different packaging to a variety
of users. But the question was raised as to whether or not the company
could afford to support the influx of new users at its current pricing
structure.

Kahn pointed out that while the company has invested quite a bit in
development, the actual packaging of the products, despite the lengthy
manuals and heavy boxes, is $15 to $17 per copy. The company says it has
considered placing the products and all the documentation on compact
disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) format, which costs about the same per
copy as producing a single 3.5" disk, but the scarcity of CD-ROM drives
has prevented Borland from doing so. When asked about dBASE for Windows,
Kahn said Microsoft can get away with shipping products that have
problems, because users believe the company will stand behind the
products and fix them. However, Borland is not big enough to do the same
thing, Kahn said. "We don't ship until it's right," Kahn added, saying
it will be toward the end of the year before dBASE for Windows ships.
However, dBASE IV version 2.0 will ship very soon, Kahn said.

Kahn also said Microsoft produces products that don't talk to each
other. Paradox and dBASE tables talk to each other and while you can't
import dBASE files into Paradox, you don't need to as use of dBASE
tables is transparent to the user. Kahn pointed out Microsoft's Foxpro
and Access tables don't talk to each other. In order to offer a suite of
products to users as Microsoft has done in it's Microsoft Office
product, Borland is aligning itself with Wordperfect, Kahn said.
However, the company has no intention of offering a word processing
product of its own. Kahn, who spoke last week at the Software
Publisher's Association meeting in San Diego, emphasized again that
"Microsoft Windows is a new operating system and companies who don't
recognize that are going to be in trouble."
---

Radio Shack Intros Voice-Dialed Telephone

Radio Shack says its Duofone 600 Voice Dialing Telephone is now
available in its outlets across the country. The phone dials a
previously stored numbers when the user says a word associated with that
number, usually the called party's name. The Duofone 600 learns to
recognize the spoken name and makes a voiceprint, which is associated
with a learned telephone number. Up to 20 voice dialed names and numbers
can be entered in any language. With a capacity of 24 digits for each
number, the phone can store the sequences for dialing international
numbers. It can also store an additional 50 "speed dial" numbers in a
separate autodialer memory.

Radio Shack says that if more than one person regularly uses the phone
and wishes to voice dial the same name/number combination, each user
must create their own voiceprint in the dialing memory. Stored names and
numbers can be played back for review. Four "AAA" batteries, which are
not included with the phone, provide memory backup if power fails. Other
Duofone 600 features include selectable tone/pulse dialing mode, a
security code feature which can protect the voice dialing features. It
can also lock out all outgoing calls except those programmed to three
one-touch memory keys located above the dial keypad. Other controls
include re-dial, flash, hold, volume control,and mute. An adjustable
display at the top of the phone shows the date, time, call elapsed time,
and the name and number of the present call. Shipped with an AC adapter
and a wall-mount plate, the Duofone 600 has a price of $139.95.
---

Compaq Reduces Some Prices - Again

Compaq, the company that some say started the personal computer price
war, has done it again. The company announced that it is reducing prices
on some of its computers and printers by as much as 20 percent. The
announcement says the cuts will include the Contura 3/25 notebook, the
Deskpro/i, and the Pagemarq printer. Also being announced today are 39
new models, including a multimedia Prolinea with a CD-ROM drive, 16-bit
sound card, modem, external speakers, and four CD-ROM software programs.

Compaq has also joined a short but slowly growing list of companies that
do not publish suggested retail prices. Instead, it will provide
estimated street prices, a step it says will provide end users with a
better idea of the actual price they will pay. The term "street price"
has been popular for many years, and represents the actual price dealers
will accept for hardware and software. Street prices are driven by such
factors as demand, dealer discounts, and special incentive programs
offered by manufacturers. Under the new price schedule, the Contura 3/25
laptop will now sell for $1,499, a nine percent reduction. The color
version of the laptop now has a street price of $1,991, and the color
LTE Lite/25c can be purchased for $2,999. Compaq spokesperson Yvonne
Donaldson told IDG a 386-based 25 MHz Prolinea 3/25ZS Model 40 desktop
system is now available for $749. The new prices do not include
monitors, Donaldson told IDG. The Pagemarq network printer has been
reduced to $2,599, a 20 percent reduction, and a Deskpro 486 system will
now sell for $1,399.

Among the new additions to the Compaq line are a Prolinea 486-based 66
megahertz (MHz) at $1,999 and a mid-range Deskpro/i for $1,849. Compaq
is also offering more Contura notebook models with 486 microprocessors,
including both color and monochrome displays and a trackball. It's also
added 340MB hard drives for its desktops, and a new flat screen color
monitor.
---

TI Settles Outstanding Patent Suits

Texas Instruments said today that it has resolved all of its outstanding
lawsuits regarding infringement of its personal computer system patents.
TI says Daewoo Electronics Company Limited, Daewoo Telecom Company
Limited, and Dell Computer Corporation have all signed patent
cross-licensing agreements with TI that grant those companies licenses
through 1997 for TI system patents, in exchange for royalty payments to
Texas Instruments. Agreements had been signed previously with Samsung
Electronics, Tandy Corporation, Wang Laboratories, and Zenith Data
Systems. The patent technology at issue relates to input/output
functions such as how keyboards, displays, and printers interact with
the processing systems of personal computers. Said TI Chief Patent
Counsel Richard L. Donaldson, "We are pleased to have resolved all of
the litigation. TI receives fair value for its patents and the companies
receive the right to use important technology."

At least one of the companies, Dell Computer, had countersued TI
alleging violation of federal anti-trust statutes, as well as federal
and state statutes prohibiting fraud and unfair competition. Terms of
the agreement were not made public, but a Dell spokesperson said neither
company was required to acknowledge the merits of the other's claims as
part of the settlement. The deal also calls for Dell to cross-license
its patents to TI. Dell said it has agreed to make cash royalty payments
to TI, but declined to disclose the amount involved. The company did say
the amounts are not material to Dell's consolidated financial results.
---

InterVision Does Videoconferences Under Windows

InterVision Systems is using the Interop show as a platform to launch a
videoconferencing system under Microsoft Windows. Interop is a show
dedicated to systems which work on the global Internet of networked
networks, under its TCP/IP protocol. An InterVision spokesman told IDG
the company's compliance with that standard means that any company with
an Internet link as slow as 128,000 bits/second can handle a
videoconference, if all other traffic is taken off the link. The system
works best, however, when a T-1 trunk line is used for connections to
the Internet, as the 1.544 million bit/second capacity can handle both
video and data traffic simultaneously. In that case, spokesman Tom Woolf
added, the quality of the transmission can be dialed-up to as fast as
384,000 bits/second for higher- quality pictures, or dialed down to
128,000 bits/second so as to allow other traffic to pass through, at
some sacrifice in picture quality and refresh rate.

The compression algorithm, he added, is proprietary, because the Intel
RTV Codec being used for the system does not respond to the CCITT H.261
standard for videoconferencing. Once Intel meets the standard, Woolf
said, the algorithm will be rewritten to it. In the demonstration, the
booths of Beame & Whiteside and The Wollongong Group are linked via an
Intel RTV Codec installed as an add-in board under Windows 3.1, a
miniaturized color video camera, and InVision support software. InVision
said its software works with any network: Ethernet, Token Ring, FDDI,
and ISDN. The latter capability means that, as phone companies offer
digital services under ISDN standards in more of their switches,
companies will be able to do full-motion color videoconferences from
their desktops. It would even be possible for home-based businesses,
under ISDN, to use the system, albeit at its slowest setting.

InVision is expected to be ready for market in June, at less than $3,000
per workstation. That is far less than the lowest-priced
videoconferencing systems from companies like PictureTel and Compression
Labs.

V.Fast Group Considers Celllular Wireless

Study Group 17, the IEEE committee that is developing V.Fast, has
started to take a serious look at incorporating a provision for cellular
wireless WANs into the high-speed modem standard, speakers said Friday
at Mobile World in Boston. At its February meeting, Study Group 17
opened up a special committee to examine wireless cellular WANs, said
Jack Moran, a member of Study Group 17 and also principal engineer for
Motorola Codex, during a conference session on wireless WANs. Cellular
technology will be the only way of achieving the kind of full duplex, or
two-way, wireless wide-area communications needed by some 74 million
professional users, stated David McNamara, manager of strategic
marketing for Motorola Codex, also during the session.

Cellular and a competing technology, radio frequency (RF), are both
fraught with high error rates when running in full duplex over wide
areas, McNamara acknowledged. But unlike the errors produced in RF,
cellular errors can be partially corrected, he added. RF is now being
used for half-duplex, or one-way, e-mail communications by two major
private commercial networks, Ardis and RAM, McNamara noted. Yet the RF
WANs are slow, prone to delay, and unable to meet the needs of users who
have become accustomed to full-bodied LAN applications. Moran said that
if the wireless cellular WAN specification is included in V.Fast, some
kind of error correction scheme will be included. "But it's too early to
tell exactly what that will be. We've had some very interesting
technical arguments," he commented. A proposal to Study Group 17 from
Motorola Codex calls for an error correction scheme that is based on MNP
10, an error correction proposal first developed by Microcom, and almost
universally used in contemporary modems.

Other companies have submitted different proposals for cellular error
correction, according to Moran. These include Racal Datacomm and AT&T
Paradyne, author of the hotly debated V.32 turbo "interim standard" for
high-speed modem communications, he remarked. Motorola Codex and other
vendors want to roll the wireless cellular WAN specification into
V.Fast, instead of the current V.32 bis modem standard, due to the many
advantages V.Fast holds over V.32 bis, asserted McNamara. These include
greater intelligence, multiple bandwidths, and the ability to run in
either analog or digital mode, in addition to higher speed, he said. But
even when cellular technology receives error correction, wireless WANs
still run at slower rates than phone line transmissions, McNamara
remarked. "We don't have a panacea yet," he noted.

The speeds of wireless cellular WANs will vary according to whether
analog or digital mode is being used, Moran elaborated. In the US,
analog will prevail for the next five to ten years, until telephone
companies have converted all their switches to digital. Wireless
cellular WANs operate at a maximum of 12 Kbps in analog mode and 16.8
Kbps in digital, in contrast to the 28.8 Kbps slated for V.Fast phone
line transmissions, he said. Debate on V.Fast and cellular WANs will
resume in September, at the start of the next IEEE plenary. "I think
you'll see very rapid movement after that," he stated. "Something could
come out in writing as early as six months from then -- and in reality,
for those participating in the standard, much earlier than that."
Meanwhile, Motorola Codex has been running several applications based on
its own proposal for V.Fast and cellular wireless WANs, said McNamara.
One user, the State of Connecticut, is implementing the technology for
mobile vans operated by the Registry of Motor Vehicles.
---

Voice Command Interface Software

Covox has announced that it is now shipping Voice Blaster, a voice
recognition software package that allows users to issue voice commands
to run keyboard and mouse macros on their PCs in place of typing
keystrokes. "We're excited about the prospect of bringing affordable
voice recognition capabilities to business and home PC users," says
Kevin Corson, Covox director of marketing and sales. Covox spokesperson
Charles McHenry told IDG, "(This) breakthrough software may change the
way people use their computers."

Voice Blaster, with a suggested retail price of $119, is compatible with
personal computers using Intel microprocessors and running DOS or
Microsoft  Windows. The company says Voice Blaster is compatible with
most popular sound cards, including Sound Blaster Pro, Media Vision's
Thunderboard, and the Tandy Sensation. It's designed to be compatible
with dBase, Fox Pro, Quattro Pro, Quicken, Wordperfect 5.1 and AutoCAD.
It also works with games from Electronic Arts, Game-Tek, Lucas Arts
Entertainment, Microprose, Sir-Tech, and Villa Crespo. The company says
it is not compatible with programs that don't allow access to the
keyboard BIOS (basic input/output system). McHenry told  IDG the
included headset connects to the PC through a parallel port and has a
passthrough feature that allows simultaneous use  of the printer and the
headset.

Corson says Voice Blaster works as a terminate-and-stay resident (TSR)
that can get along on as little as 21 kilobytes (K) of system memory,
although the actual amount of memory used "depends on the size of the
macros that are tied to the voice commands," he says. Voice Blaster will
work on a 286-based system with only 640K of memory, but will
automatically load as much of itself as possible into high memory when
its available. It's compatible with memory managers like QEMM-386 from
Quarterdeck and 386 MAX from Qualitas. The DOS and Windows versions of
Voice Blaster require an EGA or better video display. According to
Corson, Voice Blaster is targeted at three main market segments:
business PC users with keystroke-intensive applications; game and
entertainment product users; and educational environment computing. The
company says it will also license the Voice Blaster voice recognition
technology to developers who want to add voice commands to their
programming projects.

PCs aren't the only potential market for Voice Blaster technology. The
company says it's talking with auto makers and home entertainment and
automation companies about including the technology in auto and home
electronics products.
---

Dell Reports Increases in Fourth-Quarter Sales, Net Income

Dell Computer Corp. today reported that its net sales for its fourth
quarter ending Jan. 31, 1993, rose 117% to $620 million, compared with
$286 million recorded for the same period a year earlier. Dell's net
income for the quarter ($31 million) was more than double what it
recorded for the same quarter a year ago ($15.4 million). Dell Chairman
and Chief Executive Officer Michael S. Dell atttributed the sales and
net income increases to its successful direct-marketing approach. Dell
added that for fiscal year 1993 the company's sales finished $1.1
billion higher than figures reported for fiscal 1992. The company also
posted a 128% increase in sales to small and medium-size businesses and
individuals, and its domestic sales also rose 128% ($378 million vs.
$166 million). Dell's increased market share in existing international
subsidiaries and expansion into new countries boosted its fourth-quarter
international sales to $242 million, an increase of 103% over
year-earlier figures. Dell opened subsidiaries in Australia and Japan in
January 1993, and its Japanese subsidiary posted record-setting initial
sales.
---

IBM Programming Systems, WordPerfect in Desktop Development Pact

IBM Programming Systems yesterday announced a joint development
agreement with WordPerfect Corp. that is expected to enable both
companies to roll out products that more easily interact with each other
within a desktop environment. The agreement encompasses the following
WordPerfect word processing products: WordPerfect for OS/2, WordPerfect
for Windows, WordPerfect for DOS and WordPerfect for AIX. Under terms of
the agreement, both companies will work together to provide users with
consistent object interaction and data interoperability across multiple
workstation products and operating systems via industry standards and
open interfaces, such as Vendor Independent Messaging for message
enabling. The agreement also enables both companies to explore areas in
which a technology exchange would be mutually beneficial.
---

Sun Microsystems Opens Venezuelan Subsidiary

Sun Microsystems Computer Corp. yesterday announced the opening of a
subsidiary in Caracas, Venezuela. With the opening of the Caracas
subsidiary, Sun now has offices in 27 countries worldwide, including
Mexico and Brazil. The Caracas-based office will serve as Sun's regional
headquarters for Central America, the Caribbean and Spanish- speaking
regions of South America. It will provide sales, service and marketing
support to Sun Microsystems Computer Corp.'s distributors, value- added
resellers and customers in this region.
---

PowerOpen Association Formed Around IBM's PowerPC RISC Chip

Seven computer vendors announced the creation of a company yesterday to
provide software development tools around PowerPC processors for
Macintosh, OSF/Motif or character-based environments. The PowerOpen
Association -- founded by IBM, Motorola Inc., Groupe Bull, Apple
Computer, Inc., Harris Computer Systems, Tadpole Technology, and
Thomson- CSF -- will act as a "vendor neutral" forum to promote and
oversee the adoption of applications based on the PowerOpen environment.
The PowerOpen Environment includes an Application Binary Interface (ABI)
that should enable developers to work independently of platforms and I/O
buses of different PowerPC-based hardware. An Application Programming
Interface assures a link between applications and the base operating
system, networking services and installation procedures. IBM will
integrate the PowerOpen ABI and market it as its AIX/6000 operating
system, as will Bull in its AIX-based BOS/X and Thomson-CSF's UNI/XT.
Apple also plans to release a compliant operating system. Vendors or
major software developers that join the PowerOpen Association can add
extensions on to their PowerOpen Environment compliant implementation.
The PowerPC RISC processor was jointly developed by IBM, Motorola and
Apple. The PowerOpen Association will be based in Boston and Paris and
headed by former Digital Equipment Corp. marketing executive Domenic J.
LaCava.
---

Technology Boom Expected

Key Asian Bank Exec Predicts Technology Boom in China

Speaking at the seventh annual Hong Kong Share/Guide (IBM users)
Conference last week, David Li, chief executive of the Bank of East
Asia, said he believes China's dynamic development will propel it into
the ranks of the world's technological powers. Li acknowledged that the
breakthrough won't happen overnight, but maintained that given another
15 years, China will lead the world in technology. "I'm so confident, I
know that," he said. Li is basing his prediction on several factors.
First, China has come of age as an investment site, he said. "The whole
world wants in." Two of China's closest investment partners have been
Hong Kong and Taiwan, creating what Li describes as a "growth triangle."
China supplies low-cost labour and land, Hong Kong brings its
international links and marketing savvy, and Taiwan adds its technology,
engineering talent, and US$82 billion-plus in foreign reserves, Li
explained.

But China is more than a cheap source of labour and potential consumers,
he stressed. "It is also a source of tremendous scientific and
technological expertise, and I know this at first hand." As a member of
IBM's advisory board, Li has toured IBM's Shenzhen- based software
development operation. He estimates there are more than 200 computer
specialists employed there, the majority of them with post- graduate
qualifications, often from overseas. According to Li, China is hoping to
attract more than US$2 billion in foreign investment from 1991 to 1995
to develop its information infrastructure. And several Chinese
ministries have even proposed the building of a second telephone network
across the country, he said -- an uncharacteristic move toward
competition. But all of this is just the beginning. Underlying China's
technological potential is a large corps of first-rate scientific
talent, Li pointed out. And few people realise that China is strong in
lasers and optics, and even superconductivity, he added.

Li's message for Hong Kong -- and he is happy to repeat it loud and
clear: "You are fortunate to be in the right place at the right time.
You are at the forefront of China's development as a scientific
superpower." Perhaps he should have added: "So don't waste that
opportunity."
---

Lotus Begins Effort to "Pump up the Volume" of Notes Licenses in Asia

According to James Fieger, general manager of Lotus Asia Pacific, the
company's principal strategy in Asia is to "get the word out" on the
nature of its Notes technology. With several months before the latest
version is due, Lotus campaigners freely admit they are just "pumping up
the volume." Lotus has sold nearly 500,000 Notes licenses around the
world but Asian users account for no more than an estimated 1% of that
base. The challenge comes in explaining the technology, Fieger said.
"Every time you introduce a breakthrough technology, there are no
examples to compare it to," he noted. Perhaps because Notes is such a
new concept, even Lotus employees don't have one phrase to sum it up --
business process platform, application development environment,
communications product -- all are labels attached to the product.

According to Robert Schechter, senior vice president of Lotus'
International Business Group, as soon as people see Notes working they
want to use it. Lotus finds existing customers buying more and more
licenses every month, he said. And that is why Lotus is expanding its
local channels, increasing resources to demonstrate and sell the
product. Schechter said he believes the reasons behind Notes' slow
acceptance in Asia are three-fold: Companies aren't as networked, so the
hardware base isn't there; Asia still has a large DOS base (and Notes is
not a DOS product); and Lotus has been "a little slower in putting its
business practices into place locally." The company's Asia operation
will be in line with the rest of the world by the middle of this year,
he added. Lotus aims to grows its communications business in Asia --
incorporating Notes and CC:Mail -- by 100% this year. In order to do so,
Fieger said, the company is hoping to sign up as many as six or seven
business partners by the end of the year. Lotus Hong Kong currently has
one VAR, SysTech Information Technology. But, according to Alfred Tsoi,
general manager for Lotus Hong Kong, the local operation is in the
process of signing three additional VARs. Lotus also hopes to capitalise
on relationships with system integrators. Price Waterhouse uses Notes as
its corporate groupware platform and resells it around the world, and
Tsoi said he could see EDS reselling Notes in the future.

Lotus should also expect to see results from its worldwide joint
marketing agreement with IBM. As Schechter pointed out, IBM has adopted
Notes as its strategic product for LAN-based office customers. On the
internal front, Lotus has been investing heavily in its communications
products for some time. According to Schechter, revenues from CC:Mail
and Notes account for nearly 10% of company revenues. But the company
spends disproportionately more on R&D and staffing, he noted. Lotus'
Asia operation has just added several sales staff who will be dedicated
to Notes, and the company has extended its Consulting Services Group
into Hong Kong. These consulting services will focus on customers with
enterprise-wide products such as Notes, Tsoi said. The company is
ramping up its support for VARs selling Notes, too. Local companies can
now call Lotus' hotline support service based in Singapore, toll-free
from Hong Kong. On pricing strategies, VARs will continue to sell Notes
licenses individually, Fieger said, but starting in "a month or two,"
Lotus itself will launch Notes starter packs. These will follow the
NetWare distribution style, with five-user and 10-user packs, he said.
Lotus has yet to disclose a price for Notes 3.0, but Fieger predicted it
will be similar to the current figure, which is US$495 per user.

Lotus has one further challenge -- it must capture the interest of
commercial developers and persuade them to write applications for the
Notes environment. Schechter estimates there are as many as 300 third
parties elsewhere in the world developing applications that will tap
into Notes. But, he conceded, while there is a long list of developers
worldwide, the list in Asia is short. "We are hoping to encourage more
of them," he said. "We intend to create a whole industry."
---

User Groups Slowly Sprouting in Hong Kong

The idea of customers joining forces to communicate their needs to
vendors is a concept that has been accepted and championed in the United
States for years. Now, with Asia's booming economy and thirst for
technology, users are becoming more knowledgeable and more demanding.
Various user groups have been formed in Hong Kong, some of them highly
active. But as a rule, these groups are in their infancy and have yet to
match the muscle of their US counterparts. A glance through a selection
of last year's U.S. computer publications reveals that nearly every
article includes commentary from vocal technology users. And in many
cases, those opinions are summarised by a user group representative who
has the influence to take up issues directly with vendor headquarters.

It is no surprise that user groups are less common in Asia -- after all,
it was only recently that the region began to rival the United States
and Europe in terms of technology deployed. And given the language and
cultural variations across Asia, region-wide user organisations will
always be complex to institute and to maintain. On the individual
country level, Hong Kong's IT user group community is growing. One
recently formed example is relational database supplier Ingres. The
Ingres Hong Kong User Association held its inaugural meeting last month,
with membership for all local users sponsored by the vendor. Ingres also
supplied the venue for the meeting, and U.S. product marketing director
Matt De Maria gave a speech on company directions. At first sight, the
Association does not appear particularly independent or user-driven, but
De Maria believes that will change over time. "Vendors have to
crystallise user associations.

They usually start boot-strap groups, providing a PC for desktop
publishing a newsletter and other office facilities," he said. In De
Maria's view, the user group concept is highly beneficial to vendors as
well as users, particularly those in the database business. "Databases
are strategic systems, and you need a long-term relationship with
customers, so that you know when to be proactive," he said. With an
Ingres representative present at meetings, De Maria believes users have
the opportunity to put forward unfiltered input on products, as well as
sharing experiences among themselves. The latest Ingres release, Version
6.4, included around 70 user-driven enhancements, he said. De Maria did
acknowledge one risk in having regular vendor involvement: "Some vendors
do treat user groups as self-funding sales conferences for selling
products to a captured audience," he commented. John De Witt, vice
president of Asia operations at Synon, echoes De Maria's assessment that
user groups are usually initiated by the vendor itself. The Synon User
Group (Hong Kong) was set up in May of last year and, according to De
Witt, the company has "tried to step back, but that doesn't happen in
the first year."

Around 25 people came along to the inaugural meeting, and one year
later, attendance has not risen much above that. De Witt said the latest
meeting included a Synon Asia corporate update and industry watch
perspective. "It was very much a Synon agenda -- no users were
speaking," he added. But De Witt does expect the Hong Kong group to
follow in the steps of its more independent UK counterpart. There are
various ways for a user group to be organised, he said, one of which is
for the users to be autonomous. And Hong Kong looks as though it's going
that way, he said. In the future, De Witt expects the local group to get
involved in Synon's worldwide resolution system. As part of this
process, user group members submit "resolutions" on technical issues
they would like addressed. These are then collated by Synon so that
members can vote on them, and results are announced at the annual
U.S.-based User Group Conference. George Elledge, chairman of the Synon
User Group (Hong Kong), is keen to get the local group established but
has found it hard to commit enough time. One of his major concerns is to
interest managers as well as technical professionals, Elledge said.

He is also determined that the group should remain reasonably
independent. "If Synon or CSSL [Synon's Hong Kong distributor] did put
restrictions on the user group, I would sever connections and carry on,"
he said. Some of Hong Kong's better established user groups do appear to
have more clout in influencing vendors. Michael Mak, chairman of the
Hong Kong Share/Guide (Hong Kong IBM User Group), said the original
impetus to start the group came both from IBM and from local users.
"There was definitely a need for it among customers," he said. "It was
very frustrating trying to talk to IBM, even for the larger corporations
like Cathay Pacific or Hongkong Bank." Now the group includes more than
five technical project groups, focusing on areas such as the AS/400 or
MVS, Mak said. Each group looks at its own technical issues,
consolidates findings and presents requests to IBM Asia-Pacific regional
contacts, he explained.

Mak emphasised that funding is provided strictly through membership,
although IBM does supply meeting venues and display equipment. And users
are becoming more influential throughout the region -- Mak cited the
Asia- Pacific chairman's group as an example. This has been in operation
for two years now and provides an opportunity for user group chairmen to
meet IBM's top executives at an annual meeting, where they provide a
preview of IBM's future strategies. The Hong Kong Oracle User Group has
been going for nearly two years, according to recently appointed
chairman Alan Dixey. He said the group has been through its initial
euphoria and has stabilised at around 150 individual members. Dixey
believes that while an Oracle representative is normally present at
meetings, the group still retains its independence. "If we want Oracle
involved, we invite them," he said. "There have been times when they've
felt they'd like to say something and the committee has declined. We're
very aware of keeping the line drawn."

In Dixey's view, local user groups suffer from Hong Kong's relatively
small user base and purchasing power. "You do sometimes wonder how much
influence we can have, and I doubt that many people in Hong Kong will be
on the leading edge [of technology]," he said. "But it certainly won't
stop us raising local issues like national language support." While many
sections of Hong Kong's computer-using community are surprisingly well
represented, there are some notable exceptions. There is no
Hewlett-Packard user group based in Hong Kong and Kris Chan, marketing
and programme services manager at HP Hong Kong, said there are no plans
for one in the short term, either. "To maintain a high-quality user
group, you need active participation and to put in resources," he said.
"We're still in the investigation stage here, and we're not looking very
actively." Chan added that the company does organise "bits and pieces"
like seminars and a regional magazine, and relies on regular customer
meetings for informal feedback. HP customers looking for a more
independent forum to exchange views with fellow users have been
encouraged by the news that the U.S. HP user group Interex is looking to
form a conference in the region during 1994 to 1995. According to Chan,
Interex is also exploring the possibility of forming a subsidiary in the
Asia region.

HP already has successful user groups in Taiwan, Korea and Japan, making
the lack of activity in Hong Kong seem even more glaring. And the
attitude of local HP users is certainly not one of disinterest. Edmund
Chan, information technology manager at Glaxo Hong Kong, said he is
hoping there will be a Hong Kong user group. "Actually, I am in HP's
international user group, and they send invitations to events all the
time, but I never go because they're always in the States," he commented
ruefully. "I think [a local user group] would be useful.  We always have
some small problems we would like to discuss. Maybe HP will do something
about it," he added. Bosco Louie, information systems director at
shipping firm OOCL, argues that even though managers might not find an
HP user group all that interesting, the concept is a good idea. "It
would be good because at the moment we only talk to sales reps," he
said. "[With a user group in place], we could get the consensus of users
when we want to say something."
---

First-Time Users of Desktop Databases Swamp Tech Support Lines

The recent surge in sales of desktop databases is leading to jammed
technical support lines as first-time users figure out how to use the
often sophisticated products. Many users who took advantage of the
special promotional pricing on Access and Paradox are discovering that
creating a database is a lot harder than setting up a spreadsheet or
operating a word processor, vendors said. Access was priced at $99
during its first three months on the market, and Paradox for Windows is
still priced at $139 through April 30. Last week, Microsoft Corp.
admitted it fell far behind the support curve and was in the process of
hiring new tech support people to bring down the wait time for users
calling in with problems. "Our projections were way off," said Charles
Stevens, general manager of Microsoft's database group. "We didn't
expect to sell a million units."

Stevens confirmed that users have been waiting for more than 30 minutes
to get support. Microsoft has no way of knowing how many customers have
given up after getting continuous busy signals. A similar upswing in
calls due to high sales of Paradox for Windows has hit Borland
International Inc., officials there said. "The average wait is now down
to 4 minutes, and we think we are catching about 80 percent of the
calls," said Eric Ornas, director of technical support at Borland.
Borland recently hired new people and transferred personnel to keep up
with the crush. Microsoft said it was opening a "Fast Tips" line for
Access and would be expanding the number of people answering questions
on CompuServe. The desktop database market has expanded dramatically in
the past few months. In fact, it has doubled, if sales figures provided
from the vendors are reliable. "Fifty percent of the people calling in
haven't used a full relational database," Microsoft's Stevens said.

"We have to adjust to a new support model for databases more like that
of spreadsheets and word processors," Stevens added. Previously, support
was geared to more sophisticated users. To keep up, Borland, Microsoft,
and Software Publishing Corp. are turning increasingly to bulletin board
services and automated "fax-back" services to provide support. "Our
alternative support services are showing radical growth," Ornas said.
Microsoft said it answers about one-third of its questions through
CompuServe and its own BBS, and intends to increase that in the coming
year.
---

Semiconductor Group Receives U.S. Funding to Explore Soviet Steps

Semiconductor Equipment & Materials International last week received a
three-year grant from the U.S. Commerce Dept. to create market
opportunities for U.S. semiconductor companies in the former Soviet
Union. In a press conference Friday, Commerce Secretary Ron Brown
presented SEMI President William H. Reed with a signed agreement for a
$500,000 grant. SEMI will match the funds to create the Microelectronics
Technology Center in the Republic of Russia. SEMI will establish a
demonstration facility where U.S. companies can show their products to
prospective customers, along with customer training facilities and
translation services. The grant was made under Commerce's Consortia of
American Businesses in the Newly Independent States program. In recent
years, SEMI has led a trade mission to Russia and established an office
in Moscow last year. This year's Semicon/Europa exhibition will feature
a pavilion of Russian and Polish companies.
---

U.S. Trade Rep to Japan: `A Deal Is a Deal' on Semiconductor Market Access

U.S. semiconductor executives and U.S. Trade Representative Mickey
Kantor last week previewed what they will tell the Japanese in a
mid-March summit session on market access: ``A deal is a deal -- and we
will use all methods at our disposal to insist on reaching the promised
20 percent foreign market share in Japan.'' Ambassador Kantor on
Wednesday told a dinner audience of Semiconductor Industry Association
(SIA) executives, ``Japan hasn't made sufficient progress to date in
meeting its obligations on semiconductor market access. We expect to see
substantial progress. We are resolute and determined to get results.
Depending on how the fourth-quarter [foreign market share] figures turn
out, we will decide what course to pursue. We have a number of options
open to us to enforce the agreement.'' As reported in these columns, SIA
executives and their counterparts from the Electronic Industries
Association of Japan (EIAJ) will meet March 20-21 in Hawaii to discuss
the lagging semiconductor market access in Japan. USTR and the U.S.
Commerce Department negotiators will meet on March 22 with
representatives from the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and
Industry (MITI).

Conversations with SIA and government officials indicated a firm stand
will be taken with the Japanese. ``They made the commitment to a 20
percent [foreign market share] target. We want them to tell us now what
added definite steps they will take to live up to their word,`` said
Jerry Sanders, chairman of Advanced Micro Devices. Officially the SIA
board of directors last week reaffirmed that ``market access in Japan
remains SIA's top priority. SIA will work closely with the Clinton
Administration and Congress to pursue appropriate measures to ensure
compliance.'' One unstated possible action hovering over U.S.-Japan
negotiations is imposing trade sanctions for not meeting -- for the
second time -- the 20 percent foreign market share goal in two separate
semiconductor trade agreements. Both Kantor and industry officials
ducked questions on how firmly they viewed trade sanctions against Japan
as a possible recourse. Andy Procassini, SIA president, however,
vehemently denied published reports last week that SIA would not pursue
sanctions, if needed, to reach the target 20 percent market share. ``We
have always maintained that sanctions are one of the possible tools to
get Japanese compliance. But it isn't the industry's prerogative to
demand sanctions against Japan -- that is the government's
responsibility.''

Japanese industry and government officials early this year tried to head
off any U.S. consideration of trade sanctions by threatening counter-
trade actions of their own. MITI officials warned U.S. sanctions would
lead to Japanese retaliation, which could irreparably damage trade
relations between the two economic powers. On Tuesday evening, Commerce
Secretary Ronald H. Brown told the SIA, ``We must see that the [market
access] agreement is kept, even if that takes some hard head knocking on
our part. When every market outside of Japan prefers our product, you
are forced to conclude you are facing major barriers. We want to assure
that the Japanese market is open, commensurate to the level of our
worldwide market share.'' All parties agreed there is no way the Q4
foreign market share percentage in Japan can reach 20 percent from the
previous period's 16 percent level. However, indicators from Japan and
U.S. company spot checks of their sales point to a gain of 1 point or
more to more than 17 percent market share.

Motorola, Texas Instruments, and LSI Logic have all reported increased
design-ins of digital ICs into Japanese consumer electronic products, as
that industry shifts increasingly from analog to digital circuitry. ``We
are seeing a major increase in sales to Japanese electronic game
manufacturers. As VCRs and television go to digital video compression
techniques, the Japanese should buy more American ICs that dominate
these markets,`` said Wilf Corrigan, chairman of LSI Logic.
---

Global Vendors Stumble Over Japanese Market Access

It isn't just the foreign semiconductor manufacturers who have a market
access problem in Japan -- although they are more vocal. Computer
makers, telecom equipment firms, semiconductor production gear producers
have their own Japanese market troubles. Like the semiconductor access
question, progress in many of these markets has been frustratingly slow.
Overseas vendors in these industries echo the same refrain: their market
share in Japan is a fraction of their global share, which they claim is
proof that ``Buy Japan'' bias and unfair competition locks them out of
sales here. The Japanese position is also much the same as in
semiconductors: more patience and time is needed to dent decades-long
entrenched domestic buying habits... foreign suppliers don't make
sufficient effort to sell in Japan... the economy is in a tailspin, and
little sales activity should be expected.

There is some truth to both sides, but only on individual case examples.
There are Japanese buyers, particularly smaller and medium-size
customers, who balk at admitting foreign suppliers to their stable of
long- standing domestic vendors. And there are foreign firms that shy
away from the costly and torturous effort to make a major selling
commitment in Japan. But the reality is there are enough dedicated
foreign firms making every possible effort to sell in Japan that the
``poor-sales-effort'' doesn't explain the overall foreign sales dearth.
The current Japanese recession is real enough, but the long-range
planners here know better than anyone else that design-ins, sampling,
testing of foreign products can go on even in today's slow market to
catch the Japanese upswing when it comes.

There is also the over-shadowing trade storm clouds of decades-long
trade deficits of most foreign trading partners with Japan -- and that
is only getting worse. It isn't in Japan's best interests for leaders to
brush aside escalating warnings about the huge trade deficits as so much
``Japan bashing.'' The economic consequences of unresolved deficits are
a serious matter -- refusal to face them by either trading partner
simply builds up more explosive pressure. The market access frustration
in other sectors has tended to get less public attention than the more
publicized semiconductor issue. Since this month most of the spotlight
will be grabbed by ICs, this is an attempt to give equal time to other
foreign products with similar complaints. The Japanese treaty with the
U.S. to increase government purchases of foreign computers sharply has
made little progress a year after its signing. The treaty was hurriedly
signed by both countries to have a showcase cooperation pact to tout
during former President Bush's last trip to Japan in late 1991. There
was good reason: the Japanese government, a signatory to the GATT Code
on Government Procurement, had the abysmal record of only 0.4 percent of
total computer purchases were to foreign suppliers.

A year later sources said that share isn't much better. Foreign firms
aren't expecting immediate miracles -- indeed, knowledgeable vendors
believe educating in-grained bureaucrats may take longer than
penetrating commercial Japanese markets. Still they would like to see
some progress -- in keeping with the Japanese treaty obligations. A U.S.
computer exhibition for government officials here reported uncertain
attendance. Unlike Western public servants who jump at a chance to leave
the office for a show, Japanese agency buyers didn't jam the U.S.
exhibition. A second show is slated this fall, and both sides are now
working more in consort to attract the level of government buyers needed
to get the ball rolling towards increased foreign purchases. The
government here also reportedly is distributing more contact names in
agencies responsible for buying decisions -- to help foreign marketing
efforts. A second computer access controversy swirls around the National
Institute of Fusion Science selecting the NEC SX-3 supercomputer over
the Cray C-90 and assurances the system will pass critical benchmark
specs when it is delivered. You can be sure that the U.S. Commerce
Department with former Cray Chairman John Rollwagen, now as the Deputy
Secretary, will be watching the NEC SX-3 tests with an eagle eye. If
there is a hitch, stay tuned for further developments.

Ex-Cray chieftain is also likely to give Commerce a much harder stand on
demanding Japan meet its obligations under the supercomputer treaty
between the two countries. But Rollwagen charges that Japan is fudging
by holding off most of its public sector supercomputer procurements
until makers in that country can catch up in technology to be
competitive. Not so, say Japanese officials, pleading the recession has
forced many government procurement programs to be put on hold. Then
there's cellular phone system purchases by Nippon Telegraph and
Telephone (NTT), which up to now have given Motorola access to the
Japanese market. Last year NTT spun off its cellular operations into a
separate subsidiary, but allayed foreign concerns by pledging the new
entity would follow the same foreign procurement commitments as the
parent under a bilateral treaty with the U.S. This July the cellular
subsidiary will further break down into many regional companies -- and
the old fears have risen again that NTT's Baby Cellular won't follow the
same foreign buying commitment. If that happens, the gains under the NTT
treaty could be badly tarnished, and old trade wounds reopened.

NTT has helped the trade picture by making its second quarter-billion
buy of Northern Telecom CO switches. The giant carrier, however,
needlessly brought criticism upon itself by initially resisting an
extension of the bilateral pact with the U.S. It wasn't good p.r. at a
time when foreign market access is a touchy issue. NTT eventually agreed
to extend the accord, which it could have done in the first place to
curry goodwill. In all the access sparring, there still appears too much
divergence. Foreigners feel Japan is dragging its feet and must be
bludgeoned into concessions. The Japanese claim overseas vendors are
insisting on selling on their terms only, without trying to work within
the established supplier traditions -- dependable on-time supply and
go-the-extra-mile-service, special modifications to individual customer
specs, and open-ended long- term undefined contracts. But disparity
can't license the debatable opening of many Japanese markets. Far more
explosive divisions will erupt, if the parties can't get together on
market access.
---

Intel, Microsoft Driving Move to ISA Plug-Compatible Standard

PC architecture power brokers Intel and Microsoft last week gathered 12
component, system and software firms around a proposed
plug-compatibility specification for I/O devices based on the
IBM-devised Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) PC bus. The Plug and
Play ISA group -- also including Advanced Micro Devices, National
Semiconductor and Compaq -- represents yet another cadre looking to
build on a PC spec without initial backing from IBM, which currently
exerts little influence in an industry which bears its name. While a
source within IBM indicated the only remaining question is ``when [Plug
and Play] will be implemented in our boxes, not if,'' observers noted
IBM's absence from the group's initial roster further dims its image as
a PC benchmark stylist vis-a-vis Intel and Microsoft, whose respective
microprocessor/microcode and operating system software offering
essentially control the PC industry's direction.

The scenario is backed by comments from John Lazarus, Microsoft vice
president of systems strategy, who said IBM ``can choose to support [the
Plug and Play spec] or not. IBM for a number of reasons is no longer the
standard. Today, the measure of your machine is how well it runs
Windows.'' Several other aspects of the Plug and Play group add color to
the portrait of IBM staring across the fence at other PC industry
participants. Compaq, the original IBM-compatible PC maker and an
instrumental force in shaping the Extended ISA bus as a reaction to
IBM's Micro Channel in the late 1980s, was characterized by Lazarus as
one of the Plug and Play spec's more aggressive supporters, while
observers also noted the pairing of bitter and litigious x86 rivals
Intel and AMD. IBM -- credited with creating the PC market and
subsequently allowing it to slip from its control through a passive
attitude toward the ISA bus and missteps regarding the extent of Intel
and Microsoft leverage -- was represented at a Plug and Play briefing
during Microsoft's Windows Hardware Engineering Conference here. This
was believed to be IBM's first formal contact with the Plug and Play
group; it had not formally endorsed or rejected the spec as of late last
week.

While an IBM spokeswoman maintained company officials are ``receptive
and endorse the concept of open standards,'' adding the proposed spec
would ``certainly'' foster greater hardware interchangeability between
PCs that embrace it, she did not say why the company was not on the
original list of Plug and Play backers. The spec is seen easing PC I/O
device compatibility via software and hardware enhancements, allowing
automatic peripheral configuration rather than manual settings of
jumpers and switches. Hardware interfaces will remain the same, and
cards without the spec will still work on a Plug and Play system,
Microsoft officials said, but backers appear to by eyeing the spec as a
centerpiece of future system designs. ``It will act as a `good citizen'
with all resources and buses which will proliferate in the future,''
said Bob Taniguchi, manager of hardware evangelism for Windows. ``The
framework is generic enough that hopefully we can capture any emerging
technology -- like PCMCIA -- that comes on-line. We're hoping that it
can encourage more innovations like PCMCIA in the future.''

Ironically, the Plug and Play group's efforts are based on an IBM
innovation, since the company designed a similar feature into the Micro
Channel as a differentiating feature between that bus and the ISA.
Lazarus said the Plug and Play spec, which had its genesis about three
months ago, is now in the review stage. Microsoft is encouraging wide
input -- anyone, even giving out an E-mail address for proposed
enhancements. Taniguchi said the company has already received ``several
very lengthy E-mail suggestions,'' and Microsoft is hoping to firm up
the specification at a design workshop in May. Other Plug and Play
backers include Emulex, 3Com, Standard Microsystems, Phoenix
Technologies, Micronics Computers, American Megatrends, Creative Labs,
S3 Inc. and Future Domain Corp. Intel senior vice president Frank Gill
said in a statement the semiconductor company is contributing technology
for automatic I/O detection and selection of ISA cards, without further
comment.

In another development, eight companies also endorsed Microsoft's
Extended Capabilities Port (ECP), a new protocol which aimed at speeding
PC printers and other peripherals. The eight companies -- Intel,
National, AMD, Texas Instruments, Adaptec, Chips and Technologies, Opti,
and SMC -- are among more than 300 that have requested the spec and the
more than two dozen that licensed design kits from Microsoft. ECP is a
backward-compatible bidirectional parallel interface port configuration
using existing parallel port connectors and cables. The bidirectional
feature was said to enable more efficient control of devices by
providing the system and the user with specific peripheral status
information. Currently, most PCs can only provide general error
messages, leaving users to detect the problem according to individual
troubleshooting skills.
---

U.S., UK Microwave Radar Makers Moving Into Anti-Collision Auto Systems

GEC Plessey Semiconductors has teamed up with Jaguar Plc to apply
military microwave technology to experimental collision avoidance radar
equipment (CARE) for automobiles. The project is the latest initiative
under a pan-European program aimed at creating a wide range of safety
and traffic control systems for highways and vehicles. In the U.S.,
defense companies are also trying to move military-based microwave
technologies into automotive applications. Rick Rider, business
development manager at TRW's military electronics and avionics division,
in Sacramento, Calif., said the company has integrated a short-wave
millimeter system capable of operating from 1,000 to 3,200 feet with an
intelligent cruise control system.

The U.S. OEM market for collision avoidance systems could reach $50
million by 1996 and $225 million by 2000, according to Cleveland, Ohio-
based Freedonia Group. Also eying the market are Robert Bosch, Lucas
Industries, Texas Instruments, Hughes and Rockwell. By leveraging their
manufacturing prowess, defense companies like TRW believe they can make
the anti-collision systems more affordable. Last week Vorad Safety
Systems, Inc., a subsidiary of IVHS Technologies, formed a joint venture
with Eaton Corp. to further develop radar-based collision warning
systems. Vorad has already introduced a 24.125 GHz microwave-based
system for bus and truck fleets; the units cost about $2,000 per
vehicle. The new joint venture, called Eaton Vorad Technologies, will be
headquartered in San Diego, Calif. The companies also plan to integrate
the vehicle collision warning systems with cruise/speed controls.
Existing Vorad systems emit sound and message flashing warnings.

Paul Bouchard, president and CEO of Vorad, said the company hopes to
reduce antenna size to make the systems more attractive for automobiles
as well as lower costs by ramping up volume production. He added that
Vorad's system offers low-power and narrow bandwidth features that other
systems may not be able to duplicate. Microwave-based systems are said
to offer advantages over light and sound-based sensors because they will
operate under dusty, smoky or foggy conditions. The aim of the
Plessey/Jaguar project is to develop superior modulation techniques for
microwave-based systems operating in the allocated 66-77GHz frequency
spectrum, said Malcolm Williams, manager of the project at Jaguar. He
added the British luxury car maker is also working with other European
companies on CARE prototypes, including a radar systems unit of
Netherlands-based Philips Electronics N.V. Neither GEC Plessey nor
Jaguar would estimate when prototypes of microwave-based CARE systems
would be operational or what time frame the technology might eventually
make it into commercial vehicles.

Some semiconductor companies, such as Motorola, are developing fuzzy
logic-based automotive controls that may be integrated into the
decision- making for collision-avoidance systems. At TRW, Rider said,
``You're never going to take the driver completely out of the loop,
that's not desirable. The cruise control could be disengaged at a
sufficient distance so the driver could act upon it and apply the
brakes. For some decisions, fuzzy logic is an excellent way to go.''
Rider said TRW is not producing collision avoidance systems, but has
demonstrated them. Meanwhile, at an automotive technology exhibition at
the University of Michigan last month, another military system with
potential civilian applications was described by James Ratches, chief
scientist, U.S. Army Communication Electric Command (CECOM) Research and
Development Center. He described a night vision system using infrared
focal plane arrays that are used in the Obstacle Avoidance System, a
laser radar device. It helps prevent low-flying Army helicopters from
hitting wires and other objects.
---

Despite Recent Product Releases, IBM's Future Hinges on Its New CEO

Even the most jaded IBM watchers harvested some bright spots from the
company's recent product blitz, but the horizon remains clouded by an
ongoing CEO search and the slow shift to higher- growth markets. While
the new products look to foster an aggressive image by boosting
price/performance across virtually the entire computer line, a wholesale
effect on the balance sheet is not immediately seen. As a result, the Q1
consensus is lower revenues and another period in the red, again
shifting the focus to IBM's search for a new top executive. As with the
product recasting, however, analysts do not see an instant cure in
management changes.

``The share price will be driven by speculation on who the new CEO will
be more than anything else,'' said Bill Milton of Brown Brothers
Harriman & Co., who retains a neutral rating on IBM. ``It could rally
once a new CEO is selected, but that will be a sell opportunity.'' ``The
most important information point at this juncture is the board's CEO
selection,'' added Curt Rohrman of First Boston, who maintains a hold on
IBM. ``We believe the appointment of an outside management team is
absolutely critical. We would not be surprised if an initial action by
the incoming CEO was to trim the dividend from $2.16 per share to $1 per
share.'' ``I hope they'll get someone expert in asset management to
accelerate the downsizing and streamlining of operations,'' said
Marianne Wolk of Prudential Securities, who also has a hold on IBM.
Milton agreed, saying the new recruit ``would have to... shift resources
to higher growth areas.''

IBM's efforts thus far to target such areas -- a category in which it
includes open systems and client/server computing -- was met with mixed
reactions. The company showcased its intentions in a round of product
introductions encompassing PCs, the RS/6000 line of RISC workstations,
the AS/400 series of minicomputers, the ES/9000 mainframe line and new
forays into parallel processing. ``I'm surprised the RS/6000
announcement was not as aggressive,'' Wolk said. ``The low-end model
they offered was diskless, so it's not really a threat against some
other competitors.'' Milton argued that the next-generation PowerPC RISC
microprocessor being developed by IBM, Apple and Motorola should have
been used to give the RS/6000 a greater technological shot in the arm
and accelerate IBM's OEM revenue opportunities. ``The RS/6000 growth has
been slowed, for one thing, Intel will be out with Pentium at some time,
DEC is moving quickly with Alpha, and Sun is no less of a force with
Sparc,'' he said. IBM has revealed plans to add RS/6000 with the new MPU
later this year

Rohrman was impressed with the technology behind new parallel processors
from IBM's Advanced Workstation and Systems division and the Enterprise
Systems mainframe operation, but wanted to see a more specific plan to
keep existing customers. Of all the new products, the parallel
processors were seen taking longest to pay dividends, with Wolk calling
them ``an important step strategically but an evolving product line.''
The analyst believes IBM's recasting of its PC line will have a quicker
effect, saying the company has ``turned it around in the PC market.''
Although Wolk said IBM's PC operation has not yet reached profitability,
she believes it will be in the black for the entire year. As for Q1
projections, Milton expects IBM to post at least a 45-cent- per-share
loss on 13 percent lower revenues compared to the profitable Q192, while
Wolk sees a 35-cent-per-share deficit on revenues of $12.8 billion,
which would be roughly nine percent lower than Q192 revenues. The
Prudential analyst said her projection was influenced by assumptions of
``aggressive pricing in the new products and that the strengthening
dollar will hurt them this quarter. I also still have questions about
their high-end demand in Europe.''
---

Motorola's Norling Europe-bound Amid Semiconductor Promotions

James Norling, executive vice president of Motorola and president of the
Semiconductor Products Sector for the last seven years, is relocating to
England as president of Motorola Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Succeeding Norling is Thomas George, currently executive vice president
and assistant general manager of the semiconductor operation. Murray
Goldman, senior vice president and general manager of the Microprocessor
and Memory Technologies Group, replaces George as assistant general
manager of the Semiconductor Products unit. The changes take effect
April 1.

Norling is replacing David Bartram, who is retiring. Prior to his
European posting Bartram was assistant general manager of Motorola's
Communications Sector. Norling will be in charge of a newly organized
European Management Board, with membership culled from senior managers
in all segments of Motorola's businesses throughout the continent.
Executives on the board will continue in their current roles. ``We have
been investing with plants and equipment in Europe for over 25 years.
What we are doing by sending one of our senior executives over there is
to emphasize the importance of the market,'' said Gary Tooker, Motorola
president and chief operating officer. Tooker said the new European
board will ``formalize relationships that have existed, and bring
together in a collective way our relationship with customers and
European governments. There really is a strategy toward a homogenization
of our different businesses.''

No replacement was immediately named for Goldman, who will relocate from
Austin, Tex., to Phoenix. Under Goldman -- as director of microprocessor
operations starting in 1976 and then in a series of higher ranking
positions -- Motorola introduced its 6800, 68000, and PowerPC lines.
``We're sorting that out right now,'' Goldman said when asked about a
successor to head the microprocessor unit. ``We're going to move on this
quickly.''
---

TI, Micron Semiconductor Back JEDEC SDRAM Designs

Texas Instruments and Micron Semiconductor are backing a synchronous
DRAM design based on a Joint Electronic Device Engineering Council
(JEDEC) standard, according to sources here. The JEDEC standard has
already been adopted by Japanese memory makers NEC, Fujitsu, Hitachi,
Mitsubishi and Toshiba. A non-JEDEC SDRAM design is being promoted by
IBM, Samsung and Oki, but some JEDEC-based SDRAM producers, however,
reported at least one unnamed computer group at IBM is considering the
rival memory device instead of the IBM/Samsung/Oki IC. To add to the
SDRAM confusion, some producers say NEC designed its IC with a variance
from the other JEDEC- standard devices. NEC uses a ``pipeline
architecture'' to access the SDRAM memory banks, which isn't compatible
with a ``two-cycle preset'' architecture used by all other producers in
the JEDEC camp. However, they claimed their SDRAMs will work with the
NEC interface, although the reverse may not be possible.

A main difference between the two SDRAM camps is the single memory bank
architecture used by IBM/Samsung/Oki versus the dual memory banks in the
rival JEDEC design. Both sides agree the two architectures are
incompatible. A TI spokeswoman said the firm is developing its SDRAM
mask so it can also make single cell devices, such as the IBM design. TI
also uses an interleaf pulsed row address concept that could be used to
produce future SDRAMs with more than two memory banks, without adding
any more pins to the package. The synchronous DRAM market has been
noticeably heating up in recent weeks. Both NEC and Samsung last month
introduced 3.3V 16-megabit SDRAMs supporting system clock speeds up to
100 MHz. For now, IBM may have a market lead. ``IBM can almost make its
own de facto industry standard, even if its SDRAMs aren't based on the
JEDEC standard,'' said Takao Watanabe, senior general manager of
electron devices overseas marketing for Oki, which will make the SDRAMs
for IBM and also for Oki processors. Samsung of Korea will also make the
IBM synchronous DRAMs for its sister computer group, as well as sell to
the merchant market. Japanese memory makers in the JEDEC camp will sell
internally to try to build SDRAM market share. Hajime Sasaki, vice
president and group executive of the NEC semiconductor operations,
believes computer customers would prefer a standard JEDEC device,
although conceding IBM by itself could create large market share for the
non-JEDEC design.

With IBM, Japanese and Korean computer firms already lined up behind
respective SDRAM designs, the big marketing battle now centers on the
U.S., where customers are still uncommitted. Initially SDRAM sales are
expected to be limited, but volumes will be aimed at high-performance
computers, and prices could come down to broaden sales. Watanabe of Oki
forecast that by the end of this decade SDRAM sales could account for
half of the total DRAM market. The new SDRAM devices -- only now
sampling -- would have access times to nearly match the faster speeds of
advanced MPUs -- potentially replacing more costly SRAM cache memory in
higher performance PCs and workstations. DRAM makers are hoping early
synchronous memory ICs will see higher margins since they initially will
go to high-performance markets and be in limited supply. The continuing
low margins of conventional DRAMs is a vexing concern.
---

Interview: Jeffrey Papows, VP of Lotus' Notes Product Division

In an effort to better leverage its fast start in the groupware market,
Lotus Development Corp. has hired Jeffrey Papows to the new position of
vice president of the Notes product division. Papows, previously
president and chief operating officer of software vendor Cognos, Inc.,
is charged with growing Lotus' Notes business. That will involve
expanding Lotus' list of Notes partners and targeting small and midsize
users. "Network World" Senior Editor Bob Brown spoke with Papows last
week about the challenges ahead.

NETWORK WORLD: What are your responsibilities at Lotus?

PAPOWS: I'm charged with growing this business as rapidly as I can,
which includes everything from product evolution to maximizing the
channel structure. But developing a substantial third-party developer
industry around Notes as a platform is, in my mind, the single most
critical factor in taking Notes from the successful position in which I
inherited it to something that is pervasive on an industrywide basis in
much the same way that the operating systems are from the Microsoft side
of the fence.

NW: How is Notes sold now and what do you plan to change?

PAPOWS: Notes is sold through a direct sales force [of more than 100
account representatives] and third-party [value-added resellers] and
systems integrators. We've got 1,000 corporate licenses out there with
250,000 seats. My challenge is to expand the distribution, which will
include a larger direct sales operation, more third-party application
providers and, ultimately, sales through the Lotus channels and retail
networks that distribute Lotus' desktop application products. We've got
something in the early stages under way there. As for the third-party
developers, I'm talking about companies like PeopleSoft [Inc.] and
[Eastman Kodak Co.].

NW: Notes has been most popular among large users to date. Does Lotus
have plans to target smaller users in an effort to make Notes more
ubiquitous?

PAPOWS: We are increasing the number of server and client platforms we
support so Notes will be more attractive to small companies. We are
going to be focusing heavily on the small to midsize companies. The
product is just as relevant for small companies with five to six seats
as it is for the enterprisewide configurations of very large companies.
In the end, the challenge is to make Notes the easiest thing in the
world to buy. I think the channels for Notes will ultimately be as
pervasive as they are for 1-2-3.

NW: What are the major threats to Notes in the market?

PAPOWS: There isn't much in the way of a competitor from a product
standpoint. We think we've got a good 12- to 18-month lead -- at least
in the case of Microsoft. Windows for Workgroups has been a bit of a
joke. The firms I would keep my eye on would be the system software
companies like Oracle [Corp.]. Although they don't have product today,
they have the direct sales and service organizations and the corporate
infrastructure to do better in that kind of a business than others. They
could leverage their installed base, although a number of elements in
this technology tend to do better in object stores as opposed to SQL
kernels. So it's not as straightforward as it would seem for a company
like that to enter the market. But this is going to be an important
enough market to attract a lot of attention from companies with
resources.

NW: Who do you go up against now?

PAPOWS: The job isn't to differentiate the product from competition. It
is to explain what Notes can do for you. It's more educating the market
than fighting any particular competitor. That is changing, however, as
our customer base helps us make the message clear to other potential
customers.

NW: How important is Notes to Lotus?

PAPOWS: The Notes revenue stream isn't broken out specifically, but the
overall communications business was about 12% of the revenue in fiscal
1992, and it looks as if it will occupy a greater amount in fiscal 1993
based on triple-digit growth. The communications business is centric to
the entire company strategy, and I think it could be as large as 50% of
our business, but not in 1993.

NW: Evolution-wise, where does the development of Notes stand?

PAPOWS: The primary focus is on increasing the number of client and
server platforms supported. We've got [Apple Computer, Inc. Macintosh]
support in Version 3. We are being as prolific as we can in this area.
We're doing more with ease of use and adding technologies, such as video
and voice, to the product's rich text capabilities. There is a
tremendous R&D effort behind this.
---

Seven Firms Announce Formation of PowerOpen Association

Seven key manufacturers of computers and related technology today
announced the PowerOpen Association, Inc., an independent corporation
formed to foster the PowerOpen environment and provide software
developers with services that support the development of PowerOpen-based
products. The PowerOpen environment includes the PowerPC reduced
instruction set computing architecture and the PowerOpen application
binary interface (ABI) specification, which offers users a choice of
OSF/Motif- or Apple Macintosh-based environments. PowerOpen will offer a
wide range of services to member companies that will ease the ability to
incorporate PowerOpen technology into their software and systems. The
following are among these support services: platform and application
test suites that enable members to verify compliance with the PowerOpen
ABI specification and ABI compliance technical support to assist in
developing applications programs for the PowerOpen environment.
PowerOpen's founding members include Apple Computer, Inc., Bull HN
Information Systems, Inc., Harris Corp., IBM, Motorola, Tadpole
Technology, and Thompson CSF. Domenic J. LaCava has been named as
president of the association. He will be responsible for overseeing
PowerOpen's strategy and direction. Bull and IBM today announced
strategies to support PowerOpen.
---

Bull, IBM Air Strategies to Support PowerOpen

Bull H.N. Information Systems and IBM today announced strategies that
comply with the PowerOpen Association, Inc., an independent corporation
formed to foster the PowerOpen environment and provide software
developers with services that support the development of PowerOpen-based
products. Bull said it plans to enable its customers to access an
extensive library of off-the-shelf Unix commercial applications and
tools. Bull also said that any PowerOpen-compliant Bull Open
Software/X-, AIX/6000- or UNI/XT-based application will be able to run
immediately on any Bull PowerOpen-compliant platform. No recompilation
or modification will be necessary. Bull added that current applications
running on Bull Open Software/X on Bull DPX/20 platforms will run on
initial versions of its PowerOpen-compliant systems without any porting
necessary. IBM said that it plans to provide upward compatibility from
its current release of AIX/6000 Version 3.2 to the first release of its
PowerOpen-compliant version of this operating system.
---

Olivetti Takes Equity Stake In EO, Plans to Offer Personal Communicators

In a move to shore up global support for its personal communicator
architecture, EO Inc. today announced an alliance with Italy's Ing. C.
Olivetti & Co. SpA, which plans to sell U.S.-made systems on the
European market starting in May. As part of the deal, Olivetti is taking
an equity stake in EO and will become an equal sharesholder in the U.S.
start-up along with AT&T and Japan's Matsushita and Marubeni. The terms
of the investment were not released during the press conference here to
announce the move, which heats up a race between the EO camp and other
competitors promoting similar portable units, such as Apple Computer,
Inc.'s Newton personal digital assistant.

EO and Olivetti predict 100 million personal communicators could be in
use worldwide by 2000. Olivetti says about 40 million could be in Europe
with the rest of the 80 million equally split between North America and
Asia. Olivetti will start by reselling EO's systems, which are based on
the AT&T 92010 Hobbit microprocessor. The first systems will be offered
in the United Kingdom, followed by France, Germany and Italy. The
Italian computer maker also has the rights to manufacture Hobbit-based
systems, but Olivetti officials said it would be several years before
such a step would be considered. Mountain View, Calif.-based EO -- which
officially introduced its first two pen-based personal communicator
systems in February -- is now no longer actively pursuing other
investors, said Alain Rossmann, company president and chief executive
officer.

For now, all systems for world markets will continue to be made by
Matsushita at a plant in the Chicago area under a manufacturing
agreement, Rossmann said. He estimated that the small automated line --
which currently employs only 20 people -- could produce hundreds of
thousands of units a year with additional work shifts. The facility is
believed to be sufficient to supply demand for the product for the next
couple of years, according to EO and Olivetti officials. Following the
introduction of its systems, EO has sold hundreds of units to U.S.
companies wanting to evaluate the units. The EO 440 and 800 sell for
$2,000 and $3,000, respectively. The systems are intended to combine the
power of fax machines, personal computers and cellular telephones. It
uses the RISC-based Hobbit architecture form AT&T and the PenPoint
operating system from Go Corp. For Olivetti, the investment in EO means
the Italian computer supplier is moving into a huge new potential market
combining computing and telecommunications, said Elserino Piol, vice
chairman of the company. He said Olivetti will participate in all
segments of the personal communicator arena, including the low-end,
high-volume systems.

Initially, however, Olivetti will focus on European applications and
customers. To do this, the company will work with potential corporate
customers to develop vertical applications for the portable personal
communicators, such as field sales and service operations. It will also
support general use of the systems by European executives on the road.
Olivetti also plans to play a key role in developing EO-based systems
based on new digital cellular radio telephone technology, such as Groupe
Speciale Mobile (GSM) and Digital European Cordless Telecommunications,
which will be needed to offer units that work across Europe. The first
GSM- based systems will be introduced in 1994, according to EO's
Rossmann.
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