30th September 1998 Archive

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Roundup: Yesterday's markets

Financial news from around the world

Wall Street was disappointed that the Fed cut in the overnight lending rate was only a quarter percent, so the market indexes moved just a little lower at the close, although the Dow fell 100 when the news was first known. Still, it was the first rate cut since January 1996, and the market hopes for a further reduction. Micron …

Business 30 Sep 1998, 08:49
Sage makes two niche buys

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Sage has made two infill acquisitions, one in the UK and one in France. The accountancy software vendor is to pay £2.5 million upfront for the two companies: P.A.S.E. Ltd in the UK and Meteor SA in France. It will also pay up to £1 million for performance-related earnouts. The respective businesses are to be integrated into Sage …

Business 30 Sep 1998, 09:31
Psion Dacom joins Bluetooth

Leading PC Card modem outfit plans to add local wireless networking

European PC Card modem leader Psion Dacom has joined the Bluetooth initiative. Bluetooth, led by Intel, Nokia, Ericsson, Toshiba and IBM, is being developed as a connectivity standard for local wireless communications, allowing seamless data exchange between devices within a ten metre radius. The first products based on the …

Business 30 Sep 1998, 09:44
Kodak and Intel launch digital photo service

But we've been here before with PhotoCD, guys...

Kodak and Intel launched PictureCD in New York yesterday, although market testing started in Salt Lake City and Indianapolis last week. What's on offer is the possibility of taking photographs with an ordinary camera, and having the results on a CD-ROM. The cost will be around $10 in the US. Kodak has, of course, been here long …

Business 30 Sep 1998, 10:06
NEWS IN BRIEF

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Taiwan chips get further boost The Wall Street Journal reported that Philips has teamed up with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC) to build a $1.2 billion fab on the island. Yesterday, TSMC bought the DRAM division of Nippon Steel, as reported here. ® Mack joins Datrontech Alan Mack, ex MD of Ilion and a long time channel …

Business 30 Sep 1998, 10:20
Katmai outgunned by Motorola's AltiVec

Copper bottomed G4 close to release

Motorola is close to shipping its additional instruction set for the G3 (PowerPC 750) processor, codenamed AltiVec. The instructions will ultimately be included in the G4, sources added. The technology is likely to be unveiled at the Microprocessor Forum and according to reports will give Katmai a run for its money. The AltiVec …

Business 30 Sep 1998, 10:39
Informix becomes latest Linux recruit

Everybody's doing it, doing it...

Informix has followed rival database specialists Sybase and Oracle onto the Linux bandwagon. The company has pledged to ship a version of its Dynamic Server database for the freeware Unix-based OS early next year. Informix released a Linux version of its SE database back in July, largely to see what kind of reaction it would …

Business 30 Sep 1998, 10:46
The Linux challenge to NT in the enterprise

Just a small investment by Intel? Ah, but look at the other announcement...

Intel's spinmeisters are no doubt well-satisfied that reports of its excellent Linux adventure have so far focussed on the Red Hat aspect, while failing to notice the significance of the Linux grenade Intel lobbed in, a couple of hours before Netscape started blabbing to the reporters about Red Hat. The reason they'll be happy …

Business 30 Sep 1998, 10:50
IBM, StorageTek extend agreement

Improvements to arrive in 1999

IBM and StorageTek have struck a further deal in a bid to head off opposition from competitors. The companies said that they will improve the IBM RAMAC Virtual Array next year, providing four times the number of addressable columes, from 256 to 1024. Other enhancements include the planned introduction of 3390-9 device emulation …

Business 30 Sep 1998, 11:07
LG rolls out $899 super-CE machine

Loaded mobile device looks increasingly subnotebookish

LG this week rolls out one of the first CE machines ready for Microsoft's new 'Jupiter' version of the OS. The Phenom Express is going on sale in the US price $899, and includes a built-in software modem, IRDA port and claimed 12 hour battery life. It runs CE 2.0, and the ROM is flash upgradeable. The machine has 32 megabytes …

Business 30 Sep 1998, 11:50
CA and SGI take enterprise management to the Web

Unicenter TNG adopted for SGI Web site provisioning

Computer Associates' Unicenter TNG enterprise management software is moving into the Web site provisioning market, following its adoption by SGI as its only optimised management component for its Internet platforms. The Unicenter TNG Web Management Option (snappy name, people) can be used by SGI customers to monitor business- …

Business 30 Sep 1998, 11:52
Sun and Oracle team to pilot subscription app delivery

Enterprise apps to be available on fee basis

Oracle has chosen Sun and its Solaris operating system as the platform for its initial excursion into the ASP (Application Service Provider) arena. The notion of an ASP, a version of an ISP which provides access to applications across the Internet, is seen as a Next Big Thing for the Web, and Oracle is pushing it hard via its …

Business 30 Sep 1998, 11:54
Muth ‘the mouth’ accidentally boosts Linux

And seems to suggest giving away IE for free...

Somebody in Microsoft legal circles should speak to Ed Muth, enterprise marketing group manager for NT. He's been talking to ZDNN (Microsoft has many business ties with Softbank, ZDNN's parent) and his remarks could be used against Microsoft. Muth was reacting to the Intel/Netscape investment in Red Hat Software, and he clearly …

Business 30 Sep 1998, 12:10
Judge hastens Oracle vs Microsoft

Case to proceed with "no further delay"

Both Oracle and Microsoft claimed victory last night after Judge Jackson issued a two-page order limiting the information that Oracle must disclose to Microsoft as a result of Microsoft's 9 September subpoena. Judge Jackson narrowed Microsoft's demand to actual agreements, which Oracle said was narrower than it had offered as a …

Business 30 Sep 1998, 12:40
Equanet delivers sales/profits growth

Margins are up too

Equanet, the privately held corporate reseller, increased sales and profitability by nearly half for the year to June 30. The Chessington, Surrey-based reseller said sales were £41.4 million (£28.5 million) and profit before tax would come in at around £1 million. The results are unaudited. Gross margins improved by 0.5 per …

Business 30 Sep 1998, 12:59
STORAGEsearch.com helps you search for… er… storage companies

It does what it says on the tin

A UK publisher has set up a web directory designed to help resellers and end-users quickly find manufacturers of storage products. Called STORAGEsearch.com, the directory goes live in incremental stages from October. Publisher ACSL said the content would focus mainly on manufacturers that specialise in third party storage, or …

Business 30 Sep 1998, 14:05
Hyundai, LG still at loggerheads

Deadline comes,goes, while SK government looks redfaced

Desperate last minute negotions for the large family conglomerates (chaebols) have failed to resolve difficulties between Hyundai and LG. According to local English language paper The Korea Herald, that means that third parties will now be pulled into the discussions. The newspaper reported that President Kim and the South …

Business 30 Sep 1998, 14:09
Transmeta letters to the editors

Orvalds becomes a legend in his own Linus-time

An unprecedented flood of emails arrived after our Transmeta stories this week. Some of them were hate mail which was interesting. Exactly why do people get so wound up about this, we ask ourselves? Anyway, the replies were so interesting that here's a selection of the ones that didn't use obscene language! The silicon chips run …

Business 30 Sep 1998, 14:21
615 it still alive in a Transmeta way

But in a start-up sort of a thang

We almost hesitate to write another Transmeta story after the barrage of mails and hate mails we got. (Now see the updated story: Microsoft killed the 615 -- information from inside IBM Micro.) But this one is too good to miss. Some of our elder readers may well remember the Motorola PowerPC 615 and if you do a search on our old …

Business 30 Sep 1998, 15:01
SCO release UnixWare for IA-64

Oh Merced, a new OS

SCO has begun shipping its version of UnixWare for Intel's forthcoming 64-bit Merced processor to selected SCO OEMs and ISVs. UnixWare for Merced Build Level 2 (BL2) is a full 64-bit UnixWare kernel and utility set, and features the IA-64 dynamic library linking. The OS ships with a full SDK, which can be hosted on IA-64 or …

Business 30 Sep 1998, 15:11
How to Drop DOS (and still play games)

Emulators are the key, a reader writes

Recently, a number of big players have started exploring how they might drop legacy support from their new systems. Examples include Windows NT, Merced, and now Transmeta. Technologically, this is a good move, as it makes it possible to discard the 20-year-old x86 architecture and all its bizarre quirks. It also allows potential …

Business 30 Sep 1998, 15:33
IBM Java business apps reach version 3

Are ya goin' to Saan-Fraan-ciscooo?

SanFrancisco, IBM's application business components for Java, has now reached version 3 with the addition of accounts receivable/accounts payable, multiple currency support and additional platform support. IBM's approach differs sharply from components for specific industries, the route adopted by most other vendors including …

Business 30 Sep 1998, 15:38