IBM Corp is to bundle the BRender three-dimensional software developed by Argonaut Technologies Ltd, Colindale, North London into its OS/2 Entertainment Toolkit, part of the Developer Connections family of compact disks: BRender for OS/2, a real-time three-dimensional software library, will enable developers to incorporate powerful, high performance three-dimensional capabilities into OS/2 applications.
Taligent Inc said at DB Expo that it now expects to deliver its first software products by the end of September: the key product is its CommonPoint object-oriented development environment, and it will begin shipping it to its three corporate owners in June; it expects the first commercial products to be available in 30 to 60 days after that – CommonPoint is being integrated into IBM Corp’s OS/2 and AIX, Hewlett-Packard Co’s HP-UX and Apple Computer Inc’s planned Copland release of Macintosh System.
If you want a monolithic bipolar mainframe, it looks as if Hitachi Ltd and acolytes will soon be the only game in town: Amdahl Corp is phasing out its bipolar machines on a similar time-scale to IBM Corp and plans to launch a line with a 40 MIPS CMOS uniprocessor in June next year; IBM’s CMOS CPU is rated at about 17 MIPS and the next generation is planned to do 40 MIPS.
Tele-Communications Inc’s TCI Technology Ventures Inc and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers have created a new company to develop high-speed next-generation Internet services for homes and companies that will be delivered by cable television systems: the new company, Home, will be operated as an entrepreneurial start-up with headquarters in Silicon Valley and will offer multi-megabit connections from homes and businesses to the Internet, Microsoft Network and other on-line services and information providers.
Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG has signed a preliminary marketing agreement with Microsoft Corp under which it plans to sell its R-series RISC-based RM200 and RM400 workstation and client-server product line with the Windows NT Server 3.5 operating system pre-installed.
AT&T Corp has tapped Lars Nyberg, currently head of Philips Electronics NV’s computer division, to head its Global Information Solutions arm with effect from June 1, in succession to Jerre Stead, who quit for Legent Corp back in January.
We found it hard to believe that nobody would find any residual value in Mercury Communications Ltd’s UK payphone network, and so it has proved: according to the Financial Times, an Italian payphone operator, Industria Politecnica Meridionale SpA of Naples is to buy the rights to use the 2,873 sites occupied by Mercury phones to establish a UK network in competition with British Telecommunications Plc when it is granted an operator’s licence; it will run its business from a base in Sittingbourne, Kent.
Acer Inc is to invest $24m in a new personal computer motherboard, modular housing and CD-ROM drive manufacturing plant at Subic Bay in the Philippines: Subic Bay is blessed with a modern infrastructure that was constructed by the US Navy, and Acer is the first high-tech company to take advantage of the inducements offered to put plants there.
Reporting first half pre-tax profits down 5.6% at the equivalent of $27.6m on sales up 32% at $1,900, distributor Computer 2000 AG, majority-owned by Viag AG, says it expects a clear improvement in profit for the full year to September 30, barring further unfavourable currency developments; the company described the current year as one of transition and promised that by the 1995-96 year, it would be seeing synergy benefits from a new data processing system and new regional distribution centre in Moers.
Judge William Orrick, 79, has lifted his bar on lawyers in the Justice Department versus Microsoft Corp and Inuit Inc case from talking about the suit with the press.
Multimedia boards and chip design company Aztech Systems Ltd, Singapore will announce more offshore manufacturing plans later this year, said president
Michael Mun: it will also make further investments to acquire surface mount technology lines for the company’s expansion into audio telephony boards for personal computers; the Singapore plant will focus on higher margin products while its offshore facilities will focus on volume manufacturing; its priority this year is to reduce manufacturing costs by cutting its dependency on labour and automating plants.
Retix Inc as opened an office in Osterskar, Sweden to expand its sales and customer service capabilities in the Scandinavian region.
Loral Corp is embarking on another satellite communications venture separate from its GlobalStar plan for a string of 48 geostationary birds: the CyberStar system would hoist a single satellite over the western US, which would operate in the Ka-band to deliver high-data-rate digital broadband communications to US commercial and residential users: it is seeking approval from the US Federal Communications Commission for the CyberStar system, which would use the one satellite and small ground antennae, and target applications include video telephony, high-speed computer networking, medical imaging and distance learning; it would cover the entire United States, including Alaska and Hawaii starting in 1998.
ICL Sorbus, the newly-formed multivendor computer service division of ICL Plc has launched the Edge – a complete package ranging from purchase of the equipment, through next day delivery, technical support, software and hardware upgrades and replacements: the company believes that the computer industry will eventually resemble that of mobile phones, where the big margins are enjoyed by the service providers, not the manufacturers; it also believes that the Edge will become the ultimate 1990s accessory for high-fliers.
The computer industry’s heavyweight alliance of Apple Computer Inc, Compaq Computer Corp, Hewlett-Packard Co, IBM Corp and Microsoft Corp formed to insist on a single standard for Digital Video Disks (CI No 2,655) says it doesn’t favour one or other of the standards on the table, but lists its nine requirements for any standard: there should be one standard for both television and personal computer-based applications; drives should have the ability to read existing compact disks; there should be forward compatibility with future disks that can be written to; a single file system for both entertainment and computer-based content; low cost; no mandatory container; reliable data storage and retrieval; high on-line capacity that can be expanded upon in the future; and high performance for both movies and data files; Toshiba Corp claims its proposed standard meets all the nine requirements.
The possible target is suddenly being seen as a potential predator and the deal would certainly be a very nice feather in Sir Ernie Harrison’s cap: Racal Electronics Plc is not the company it was now that two of its major jewels have been spun off, but it’s coming back again nicely, and the Mail on Sunday reckons that Cray Electronics Plc is such a sitting duck after its shock profits warning was so hopelessly mismanaged that Racal could well mount a bid for the company – in the process improving the profit margins on its own troublesome Racal Data Communications arm.
IBM Corp says it sold 1,100 AS/400 Advanced Systems to The Associates, billed the second largest independent finance company in the US: the deal followed a multi-year evaluation of Hewlett-Packard Co and Sun Microsystems Inc offerings; the AS/400 are for running operations at its consumer finance branch offices in 43 US states and Puerto Rico; they replace IBM System 36s.
Telex Chile SA says it is actively looking for a business partner to join it in bidding for telecommunications contracts throughout Latin America, and has signed an international financial adviser to help it find the right strategic partner to join it in bidding in phone privatisations planned in Bolivia, Ecuador and Panama and to expand business in Chile, the firm said.
Los Gatos,
California-based Metricom Inc wants to string data communications up to lamp-posts: the company has formed a joint venture with the PepData Inc subsidiary of Potomac Electric Power Co of Washington DC, to deploy, own and operate a wireless data network to provide data communications to a potential 4m customers throughout the metropolitan District of Columbia; Metricom will install a network of poletop radios on street lights, power poles and buildings to provide its Ricochet wireless data communications service to residential, business and government users; Ricochet supports laptop computers, Personal Digital Assistants and desktop computers with wireless performance comparable with dial-up telephone modems, and customers pay a flat $30 a month for unlimited usage of it; the power utitity will invest $7m in the joint venture and take 20%.
UK water company Severn Trent Plc’s Birmingham-based subsidiary Severn Trent Systems is laying off 54 of its 288 staff: the company, a supplier of work management and network modelling systems to utility companies world-wide, including Severn Trent, says that since 70 staff joined it in April, from its parent company, there has been duplication which these redundancies will eliminate; Severn Trent Services was formed in April 1993.
