8th October 1998 Archive

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HP switches to Intel StrongARM for Jupiter CE machines

HP's ARM licence the other week may be panning out into a co-development deal

As anticipated here, HP is switching its handheld PCs to the ARM processor line, and is to be supplied initially by Intel. HP and Intel are already partners in IA-64 design, and they announced yesterday that HP's next generation of handhelds would use Intel's new StrongARM SA-1100 processor and its companion chip. The machines, …

Business 8 Oct 1998, 07:05
Intel maps out future of IA-32 with 1 Ghz CPU, Katmai and friends

We told you this a while back - Intel told everybody else yesterday...

Intel has started to open up more about its roadmap (detailed here weeks ago) for successors to the Pentium II, and for the continuation of the IA-32 architecture beyond the launch of IA-64 Merced. With the new designs, expected from 1999 through to 2001, Intel appears to some extent to be making increased efforts to segment the …

Business 8 Oct 1998, 07:10
October 24: Cyrix price drops

Advance notice

Cyrix has plumped for October 24 for its latest round of price cuts. In OEM quantities (of 1,000), new prices are: 6x86MX PR233 - US-$ 45 6x86MX PR266 - US-$ 55 M II-300 - US-$ 67 M II-333 - US-$ 82

Business 8 Oct 1998, 07:53
Roundup: Markets on 7th October

Book deal impacts Amazon, AMD goes down on good news. Bizarre...

The Nikkei put on another 6 per cent yesterday, making an astonishing 12 per cent rise in the last two days, but it remains to be seen if sentiment is backed by action from the Diet. The Dow and FTSE were essentially unchanged, but Nasdaq slipped 3 per cent. Wall Street's mood was one of caution about quarterly earnings and …

Business 8 Oct 1998, 08:43
DoJ takes on Visa and Mastercard

Slapped wrists for stifling smart card competition

The US Department of Justice has filed an antitrust suit against Visa and Mastercard, alleging the two credit card agencies have stifled competition in the emerging smart card business. The DoJ claims Visa and Mastercards' member banks -- many of whom are represented on the governing bodies of both card associations, which the …

Business 8 Oct 1998, 10:39
Compaq axes 1000 jobs

First round of 17,000-redundancy scheme

Compaq made 1000 workers at its Houston assembly plant redundant yesterday. The cuts are part of Compaq's streamlining operation following its acquisition of Digital, and an attempt to rationalise generally its manufacturing system. The move is the first stage of the company's plan to cut a total of 17,000 jobs, 5000 of them in …

Business 8 Oct 1998, 10:42
Chip sales grew in August

First month-on-month rise since November 1997

Global chip sales saw their first month-on-month increase of the year in August, rising 1.5 per cent, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association. Total sales reached $9.81 billion in August, up from $9.66 billion in July. Breaking the rise down into territories, the increase represents a 3.4 per cent rise in the …

Business 8 Oct 1998, 10:44
Yahoo! profits! soar!

Portal second most visited Net entry point after AOL

Yahoo! posted Q3 profits of $16.1 million on revenues of $53.6 million, well up on analysts' predictions. For the same period last year, the company's revenues were $18.1 million, generating $681,000 in profits. The company also reported an increase in site traffic of, on average, 144 million page views per day in September, up …

Business 8 Oct 1998, 11:06
Ellison takes aim at Microsoft crown jewels – Windows NT

After lashing-out in all directions, Oracle's Larry Ellison seems to be finding the right target at last

Oracle chairman CEO Larry Ellison is taking aim at Microsoft's core enterprise strategy, mounting an attack on client/server computing, which he describes as an evolutionary dead end, and more specifically taking a pop at Microsoft's 'servers everywhere' distributed computing model. Chairman Larry has a long history of this kind …

Business 8 Oct 1998, 11:15
Citrix stock price Scudded

intro

Cripes! There in yesterday's wires was the headline from Dow Jones saying "Citrix Dn 11%; Microsoft Server Pricing worries Cited". So we tore to the text immediately. Which said: "Iraq said Tuesday it has yet to receive sufficient guarantees from the United Nations Security Council..." So there's something else the Wall Street …

Business 8 Oct 1998, 11:30
Packard Bell NEC settles whistleblower suit

$3.5 million paid to end 'old parts for new' case

Packard Bell NEC has paid the US government $3.5 million to settle the 'whistleblower' suit brought by the Attorney General over allegations that the company sold computers containing old parts as new. The settlement is $1 million more than the company has already paid out in previous settlements in related suits. Former Packard …

Business 8 Oct 1998, 11:36
Network Solutions domain name licence renewed

NSI stays in charge until 2000 in return for registration data

It's not a done deal, but in exchange for Network Solutions, Inc. agreeing to surrender technical data about its procedure for domain name registration, the company almost certainly will have its contract, recently moved to the US Department of Commerce, extended until 2000. The House Subcommittee on Science looked at the …

Business 8 Oct 1998, 11:45
Oracle plans $8 billion revenue Web outsourcing operation

Larry Ellison reckons that pay-as-you-go enterprise apps are the Next Big Thing, and is looking for partners

Oracle is seeking partners for a spin-off of its Business Online operations, said chairman and CEO Larry Ellison yesterday. The Oracle unit is currently entering a beta in conjunction with Sun, and aims to conjure up what Ellison claims will be $6-8 billion worth of annual revenue in five years time. From Oracle's point of view …

Business 8 Oct 1998, 14:43
Seagate pulls plugs on Scottish semi plant

Plans to outsource semiconductor support for its drives

The semiconductor slump has claimed another victim, and Scottish inward investment has taken another knock, with the news that disk drive manufacturer Seagate is pulling-out of its Livingstone semiconductor manufacturing plant, putting 275 jobs under threat. Seagate has been losing money, and has come to the conclusion that …

Business 8 Oct 1998, 15:04
AMD poised to announce K6-2 400 deal with tier one PC company

Faster versions in November could win the company sales further upscale

AMD is to launch the 400 MHz version of its K6-2 processor on 10 November, with the backing of a "top tier" vendor, according to sources close to the company. It's not yet entirely clear who the vendor is, but Compaq, IBM and HP are all candidates. All three companies have been successful in selling AMD K6 machines in the retail …

Business 8 Oct 1998, 15:31
Network Associates sets sights on online market

P-p-p-pick up a p-p-p-ortal

Anti-virus specialist Network Associates has launched an Internet portal aimed at users seeking a one-stop shop for PC "health and fitness". The service also includes a subscription component, McAfee's Garage, essentially a Web-based extension of the regular anti-virus software update scheme the company already operates. …

Business 8 Oct 1998, 15:42
Pan-Europe modem standard could cause trouble

Standards harmonisation is outpacing the PTTs, claims TDK

The new pan-European standard for modem approvals could cause major problems for users in some countries, says PC Card modem supplier TDK Systems Europe. The standard is intended to harmonise approval standards across the EU, but it appears to be running ahead of similar harmonisation among national PTTs. The CTR-21 standard was …

Business 8 Oct 1998, 17:57
Microsoft rolls out ‘Jupiter’ CE in surprise attack

Research coincidentally proves punters want larger format 'PC companions' - but not smaller PCs, presumably...

Microsoft has announced Windows CE 2.11, codenamed Jupiter, a week early, and says the software has already been shipped to 12 OEMs. But the new rev of the operating system, snappily titled the Microsoft Windows CE Handheld PC Professional Edition (the 'designed for Windows…' label will be bigger than the machines), has already …

Business 8 Oct 1998, 18:48
Update: Wise men save Acorn PC

Bondar to the rescue, maybe?

We have been asked to remove references to a memorandum of understanding concerning the revival of the Acorn PC that appeared for a few hours on Acorn Cybervillage. Apparently this was a draft proposal -- not a heads of agreement - and was inadvertently leaked and posted. Failure to remove references to this draft memorandum …

Business 8 Oct 1998, 20:27