1st September 1998 Archive

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Web causes depression – official

Is there any hope for us staffers?

It's official: "Using the Internet seems to cause isolation, loneliness and depression." At least, that's the conclusion of a two-year Homenet study at Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, undertaken by Professor Robert Kraut and his colleagues. The study, funded by the IT industry and the National Science Foundation,followed …

Business 1 Sep 1998, 08:50
Rohm on the Microsoft range

His Billness starts pre-emptive spin war against book

"File this in the fiction section" is Microsoft spokesman Greg Shaw's advice about Wendy Goldman Rohm's book "The Microsoft File. The secret case against Bill Gates" [Times Books, Random House, NY] to be published on 8 September. Rohm is a freelance journalist who uses a fly-on-the-wall style to describe scenes that Microsoft …

Business 1 Sep 1998, 08:53
Tech stocks get pounding on Wall Street

Recession? What recession?

Some say it's a recession, others a correction, but Monday's worldwide stock exchange slide following the trend set on Friday now has serious implications for the technology sector. The Dow Industrials declined 6.37 per cent to 7539, with the 512 point fall being greater than the 508 loss on Black Monday in 1987, while the …

Business 1 Sep 1998, 08:55
Siemens accuses LG Semicon of patent infringement

Seven patents in question

The battle between Siemens and LG Semicon was racked up a further notch yesterday when the German semiconductor firm accused the South Korean manufacturer of infringing its DRAM patents. Reports said that Siemens sued LG Semicon over seven patents and accused the South Korean manufacturer of manufacturing and designing DRAM …

Business 1 Sep 1998, 10:12
Insight sues HP over imaging technology

Claims misappropriation of trade secrets

Insight Development of San Ramon, California is suing HP because it says that HP has "misappropriated " its imaging technology. In particular, the company claims that HP had infringed an Insight patent and misapproriated trade secrets. HP has a non-disclosure agreement with Insight to use its Virtual Image (VI) technology in …

Business 1 Sep 1998, 10:22
US versus Microsoft case takes further twist

DoJ to file its response today

With Bill Gates about to be interrogated for a third day on Wednesday, sources in Washington DC have confirmed that the Department of Justice (DoJ) and the state attorney generals have filed a response to Microsoft's request to the federal court to throw out most of the case. That is on the principal ground that the pro-monopoly …

Business 1 Sep 1998, 10:24
Big Blue gets copper bottom

Power PC 750 goes 33 per cent faster

IBM will announce today the shipment of copper interconnect technology on a flavour of the 750 Power PC processor. The 400MHz processor uses IBM-developed technology to speed connections on the chip using copper rather than the more conventional aluminium. The chip it will introduce had previously run at 300MHz using the …

Business 1 Sep 1998, 10:43
Samsung samples 1Gb DRAM

Deal on 10 September still on cards

The Korean press reported yesterday that Samsung has completed testing of a 1Gb DRAM module. The product has already started sampling and has been supplied to its partner Intel and to other PC vendors. The module, which uses a series of 256Mbit synchronous DRAM (SDRAM) chips is likely to be used in future generations of machines …

Business 1 Sep 1998, 11:01
Big Blue to sell Global Network

Lou Gerstner strapped for dosh?

A report in the Wall Street Journal claimed that IBM has put its Global Network up for a sale, and has hired Merrill Lynch to put it out to tender. The unit could fetch as much as $4 billion, Big Blue hopes, but it would have to be a worldwide ISP which thought it was worth it. Four years ago, IBM pushed the Global Network hard …

Business 1 Sep 1998, 11:23
Hitachi in fight over DVD right

Will Sony follow with mini-disc formulae?

The Hitachi Corporation is to introduce a camcorder next year which uses DVD Ram rather than videotape, according to reports on Japanese wires. That is a first for DVD memories applied to audio-visual equipment. Hitachi, which has been at the forefront of DVD, said that the RAM version will hold up to an hour of images on both …

Business 1 Sep 1998, 13:56
Japanese companies start divesting

Mitsubishi and Toshiba rid themselves of troublesome hardware

Japanese companies, faced with increasing debts and decreasing revenues, are spinning off units in an apparent bid to gain valuable foreign currency. Toshiba today announced in the UK that it would rid itself of its air conditioning unit and merge its operations with US based company the Carrier Group. Toshiba boasted formerly …

Business 1 Sep 1998, 13:58
AMD to ship 12 million K6 parts in 1998

400MHz part to arrive in Q4

AMD has responded to accusations it cannot produce enough K6-2s by delivering comprehensive figures which it claims vindicates its stance. A source close to AMD gave facts and figures showing how many wafers it had made and chips it had shipped. According to the source, close to senior AMD executives in the US, in the second …

Business 1 Sep 1998, 14:20
South Korea hits out at US, Japan and Australia

Germany and UK seem to get clean bill of health

Reports in the Korean press will say tomorrow (Wednesday) that there are over 250 barriers to the country doing business in other countries, with unfair rules and systems operating in 61 countries. The SK Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy has hit back at unfair practices from countries including Japan, mainland China, …

Business 1 Sep 1998, 14:46
Packard Bell NEC puts purchasing on global footing

Will streamline suppliers

Packard Bell NEC is to centralise its component purchasing operation into a single, global operation in a bid to cut manufacturing costs, boost margins and regain its former glory. The Worldwide Purchasing unit will be headed by Almarie Falbo, until recently Packard Bell NEC's VP for corporate customer satisfaction, a role that …

Business 1 Sep 1998, 14:56
Data warehousing grows more than 50 per cent per year

Knowledge, but not as we know it

The market for data warehousing and decision support is set to grow by more than 50 per cent a year, US-based researcher Palo Alto Management Group (PAMG) has claimed. Reporting its findings, the company said added the market will be worth over $113 billion by 2002. Driving the growth will be the evolution of data warehouses …

Business 1 Sep 1998, 15:04
HP bundles free backup software with Sure Store

Does disaster recovery too

Hewlett-Packard has introduced a new software package to be distributed free with its Sure Store range of tape drives. This comes as Banner, a US research company release the finding of a recently completed study of the market for backup software in the US, UK and Europe. The research found that the three most important features …

Business 1 Sep 1998, 15:06
Asda signs Viglen for back to school PCs

Aisle 12, next to the fruit and veg, love

Asda is cashing in on the start of the computer buying season , with a Back to School drive to sell cut price PCs. The supermarket chain will have PCs for sale in every store, retailing at £799. Asda claims this is £200 cheaper than most other outlets. The hardware is being supplied by Amstrad subsidiary Viglen, and will carry …

Business 1 Sep 1998, 15:11
01/09/98 Daily Digest

Flannel from around the UK Channel

Douglas-Mann apppointed Lynx chairman Lynx Group plc has named Stewart Douglas-Mann to succeed Roger Pinnington as non-executive chairman. Chief executive Richard Last thanked Pinnington on behalf of the board for his "contribution to building the Group over the past seven years, during which time the market capitalisation has …

Business 1 Sep 1998, 15:22
In brief: AMD pondering IBM Microelectronics deal

Second blow to Big Blue fabs

Sources told The Register late today that Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) was considering suspending its deal with IBM Microelectronics to fab out its K6 chips. Earlier today, as reported here, AMD disclosed figures of the wafers made by its fabs, suggesting that it is close to achieving critical mass on its processors off its own …

Business 1 Sep 1998, 16:09