Commenting on the company’s mid-term results – pre-tax profits up 4.3% at UKP4.8m – Sir Austin Pearce, chairman of Oxford Instruments Plc, said all businesses had traded profitably with sales of diagnostic imaging magnets picking up during the six months; the results include an exceptional charge of UKP500,000 related to the development of the compact synchrotron for IBM which will be used to fabricate 64M-bit chips (CI No 883): according to Sir Austin good progress has been made on the project, but it is now expected to overrun its original timetable; Oxford will retain all intellectual property rights to the device when completed and is hopeful that other major computer manufacturers will show an interest.