UShare, Calabasas, California-based Information Presentation Technologies Inc’s Apple Mac-to-Unix communications software, is now available for Sun Microsystems’ Sun-4 and Sparcstation-1 systems, Hewlett-Packard’s 9000 Series 300 and 800 workstations, DEC’s DECstation 3100 and MIPS Computer Systems’ hardware. UShare resides on the Unix host and enables Apple Macs on the network to use the full range of Unix resources. Based on TCP/IP, uShare supports Ethertalk Phases I and II, as well as a LocalTalk interface to Sun, Apollo, MIPS and Sony systems. It also incorporates a Virtual Disk facility which enables Macs to run diskless by storing the MacOS operating system and user files on a virtual disk running on the Unix host; a Unix-compatible electronic mail system; and support for a range of peripheral devices. AT&T’s early retirement plan offered to its 34,000 managers last October (CI No 1,289) has been accepted by around 12,500 – over 1,000 more than the expected figure, reports Electronic News. The cost to AT&T, which introduced the scheme to reduce layers of middle-management and operating costs, has been put at between $100m and $125m; AT&T has not revealed the exact figure, but said that these costs would be offset by incoming revenues, including a stock swap with Olivetti. Annual savings resulting from the programme were initially put at $450m: despite the larger than expected response, AT&T says this figure is still an accurate esimate. The offer was taken up by managers ranging from 41 to 70 years old, with salaries of between $30,000 and $90,000; only those posts that involve direct contact with customers or the public will be re-filled, while behind-the-scenes positions affected by the offer will remain vacant. The reductions will leave AT&T with a total of 286,000 staff, including 2,600 and 1,200 from recent acquisitions Paradyne Corp and Istel Ltd; in the UK, Istel said that its managers were not eligible for the scheme and that as far as it was concerned, the emphasis was on increasing the number of management posts.
