9th November 1998 Archive

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A year ago: Slit One will be an integrated motherboard

Intel decides not to socket and see

Our friends at Infoworld repeat some speculation this weekend about a cut-down version of the PII appearing next year. We're mighty glad and flattered to have our friends over the pond read our stuff. But here at The Register we have a slightly different take on the now-famous Slit One technology, prompted by talking to both a …

Business 9 Nov 1998, 08:18
Mid-year shipment for Windows 2K? Maybe…

If the promo programme's kicking in, it means Microsoft thinks it has a shot at it

Windows 2000 (aka NT 5.0) could ship as early as second quarter next year, if the timeline attached to a couple of promotional campaigns for the product is to be believed. Microsoft is due to kick these off next week at Comdex, and while that doesn't necessarily mean that Beta 3 by Thanksgiving will be achieved, it means it's …

Business 9 Nov 1998, 08:57
370-pin 366MHz Celeron to appear in January 1999

Predominant design will have Gigabyte support

Sources close to Intel confirmed today that the first iteration of its 370-pin slot will appear at the very beginning of next year, as part of the chip giant's two pronged attack on its competition. But Intel is not -- as yet -- dropping its Slot One design for the Celeron, the sources confirmed. The first 370-pin device will …

Business 9 Nov 1998, 10:42
Compaq takes further direct step

Channel likely to be absolutely livid

Compaq will infuriate its channel in the middle of this week when it introduces a range of low-end desktop PCs sold to customers directly by its own sales staff. And the boxes may well be built by third parties, giving rise to fears of further job cuts at Compaq manufacturing plants worldwide. The move will mark a further step …

Business 9 Nov 1998, 11:11
Mulligan exits Datrontech

Mack and Wand assume commercial responsibilities

Martin Mulligan, Datrontech UK MD, has left the company after less than nine months in the job. His responsibilities will be divvied up between new UK MD Allan Mack and rising Datrontech star Tony Wand, currently general manager for the company’s commodity networking division, who is promoted to sales director. Datrontech CEO …

Business 9 Nov 1998, 11:30
Big Blue gnaws at GnetFinity prices

Thin end of the direct wedge

IBM said today that it would slash prices on a large number of its NetFinity servers. That news comes only a few weeks after it said it was going to replicate its NetFinity Direct model in the UK, further antagonising its two tier distribution channel. (Story: Big Blue makes European channel u-turn look like fast oil tanker) The …

Business 9 Nov 1998, 12:08
Memsolve bounces back after Customs raid

Innocent victim, company says

Memsolve, the Widnes-based components distie, is trading as usual, following a raid by HM Customs & Excise. Customs officials were joined by Intel and Microsoft representatives in the raiding party on 4 November. VAT-related paperwork, and a small quantity of CPUs -- "less than 20", according to Memsolve -- were taken away for …

Business 9 Nov 1998, 12:37
Microsoft probes UK hacks nervous systems

Charmingly offensive?

The Great Stan of Software has flown a heap of UK national journalists+dog over to Seattle. It's something to do with DNS and that stands for the Digital Nervous System....or is it just that its a charm offensive to give press favourable to Bill in the UK National Press?

Business 9 Nov 1998, 12:50
LSA finds Utopia in UK

Acquisition is music to Lilly's ears

US-based Lilly Software Associates has bought out its UK reseller, Utopia Systems, for an undisclosed sum as part of its "orchestrated" move into the European market. The tie-up has come as no surprise to industry watchers since the Hertfordshire-based company only dealt with LSA products. What's more, LSA UK is already reaping …

Business 9 Nov 1998, 13:09
Bogus cheques used in computer fraud

Dealers warned to be on their guard

A Brighton-based dealer has issued a warning for resellers to look out for bogus bankers drafts in connection with payment for components. Twin Computer Systems said it has been approached several times during the last eight months by buyers looking to purchase hard drives and Intel Pentium II 400MHz CPUs. On two occasions when …

Business 9 Nov 1998, 13:16
Valley reckons Microsoft case won't change The Beast

But they do think it will be good for competition. Puzzling, no?

What does Silicon Valley think about the Microsoft case? Well, the San Jose Mercury News' poll shows that most (52 per cent of 3241 respondents) think that the lawsuit will encourage fair competition. As to whether it would fundamentally change the way Microsoft does business, 42 per cent thought not, although 25 per cent were …

Business 9 Nov 1998, 13:31
DoJ subpoenas Gates' former girlfriend over Vobis

Justice is chasing claims that evidence was deliberately destroyed

Stefanie Reichel, a former Microsoft manager who, according to Wendy Goldman Rohm's book The Microsoft File was once Bill Gates' girlfriend (and then Microsoft general counsel Bill Neukom's), made a deposition in the Caldera versus Microsoft case which is wending its way through the Salt Lake City district court. The DoJ has now …

Business 9 Nov 1998, 13:33
Intel to testify in Microsoft case today

And this one will be verbal only, so pay attention at the back

A key tenet of Microsoft's defence will be an argument that it benefited consumers with its various practices. This appears to be rather hard to do, as there are few cases where there remains a competitor after Microsoft has cast its shadow over some software area that it wishes to enter. It would be hard for Microsoft to …

Business 9 Nov 1998, 13:36
LG, Hyundai desparate for European LCD partners

South Korean government hunting them

South Korean companies are desperately hunting for European companies to take over their LCD operations as they seek to escape heavy government penalties. Hyundai and LG Semicon, which both have LCD operations, are now under a geas from President Kim to sort out the problem which has prevented any chip merger. Both companies …

Business 9 Nov 1998, 15:37
Compaq coy about selling servers direct

Product manager claims Big Blue falls behind

Compaq claimed today it would not follow IBM down the route of selling servers direct. That followed an ambiguous statement from Compaq earlier today that it would not say until Wednesday what its direct desktop PC strategy is. That will largely be a direct route. Graham Stewart, product marketing manager for Intel-based servers …

Business 9 Nov 1998, 15:46
IBM slashes LCD and CRT monitor prices

Big Blue in big hunt for low prices

The biggest computer company in the world has admitted that it is selling LCD monitors to its customers at below cost. The company issued a correction to a release it issued earlier today saying that it was keeping prices buoyant. IBM said it had a fresh 18in display at a breakthrough price. It also has 21in models available, at …

Business 9 Nov 1998, 16:20
Microsoft launches SQL Server 7.0 in middle of US trial

Attempts to head butt IBM, Oracle in corporate market

Microsoft will tomorrow make a major push into the business market when it introduces SQL Server. It has many partners in the launch, including Compaq and Silvon. It is also organising a vast series of seminars, some of them free, to publicise the event. Towards the end of last month, the company said that sales of SQL Server in …

Business 9 Nov 1998, 16:38
SerCom lifts DCC's results

IT arm records 60 per cent profit growth

Irish conglomerate DCC plc today posted healthy interim results bolstered by the performance of its IT division DCC SerCom. The group showed an increase of 32.1 per cent in profit before goodwill amortisation and tax for the six months to September to IR£17.155 million based on a turnover of IR£367.706 million. DCC's largest …

Business 9 Nov 1998, 16:39
New licensing service is Ideal

Helpdesk makes it easy

Ideal Hardware plc has launched a helpdesk to guide resellers through the minefield of software licensing. The helpdesk provides a dedicated registration service for software from Computer Associates, Network Associates and Seagate Software. Ideal says it plans to expand this number in the near future. Software licensing is big …

Business 9 Nov 1998, 16:42
Intel aims Bluetooth efforts at ‘hidden computing’

Hidden computing? Networks you don't know about but that run your life for you? Yup, that's the company...

Another aspect of Intel's networking strategy started to gain some flesh at the first Bluetooth conference in Atlanta earlier this month -- as one attendee, oblivious to the sinister implications, told The Register: "Intel is keen on hidden computing." Intel in fact seems to be pretty keen on all of the network aspects of …

Business 9 Nov 1998, 18:10
Microsoft fixes QuickTime, but says it didn't break it

But check the small print of the patch posting -- it confirms Tevanian's claims

In one of life's more bizarre coincidences, Microsoft today denied that it had deliberately broken Apple's QuickTime with Internet Explorer 4.0, said the problems Apple had were because of poor Apple programming and, er, posted a fix for the problem. "Apple's shoot-from-the-hip allegations and their decision to blame their own …

Business 9 Nov 1998, 21:21
Intel writes lousy software, says Gates

Kindly Bill tells Intel it's wasting its money on crap programming -- leave it to me, he says

Here's a puzzle. One of the long term Wintel buddies, Andy Grove of Intel, says Microsoft strongarmed him over Native Signal Processing and he caved. Another one, Bill Gates, says he never threatened Intel, and what's more Intel software stinks. Those of us who got the beta of Windows 1.0 will understand that Bill's something of …

Business 9 Nov 1998, 21:47