11th November 1998 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

Intel demos four-way Xeon Linux system

The fruits of the Red Hat deal are starting to become apparent

Linux credibility in the enterprise market was boosted yesterday by an Intel demonstration of a data warehousing application running on a four-way Xeon server, Red Hat Linux and Oracle 8.05. The demo, which took place at Oracle OpenWorld in San Francisco, used Torrent Systems' Orchestrate to boost multiprocessing capabilities. …

Business 11 Nov 1998, 09:47
Windows Everywhere takes to the airwaves

Microsoft's new JV with Qualcomm aims to extend Windows networks via wireless

Microsoft and Qualcomm yesterday announced the formation of a joint venture wireless data company, WirelessKnowledge, but the pair steered clear of a direct assault on the rival Symbian alliance - WirelessKnowledge's business plan seems to be a lot more like Microsoft's networking strategy than that of a pocket device …

Business 11 Nov 1998, 10:45
Hyundai, LG appoint US third party to broker merger

Nerves break after SK government gets tough

Hyundai and LG appear to have narrowly averted stern action from the South Korean government, and have appointed a third party to oversee the merger of their chip businesses. According to US reports, the companies have appointed a US company, Arthur D. Little, to oversee the negotiations. Both companies have dug their heels in …

Business 11 Nov 1998, 10:46
Intel predicts brighter Q4 than expected

Revenues predicted to rise by ten per cent, Stan says

Chip giant Intel said that it expected to turn in stronger than expected results for its fourth quarter, giving the semiconductor sector a long-awaited boost. The reason for the upturn, Intel said, was stronger than anticipated demand for PC products across all of its market segments. A statement from Intel said that it expected …

Business 11 Nov 1998, 10:53
A year ago: Digital dating finds Intel unexpected partner

Alpha Alpha seeds the beaches

Hats off to the brave team from Samsung Semiconductor, who gamely battled through a "why Alpha isn't dead really" presentation in London just a couple of days after Digital had thrown the switch on the cryogenic chamber. Alpha licensee Samsung can't be too thrilled about the Intel Digital deal (see previous issue); Digital is at …

Business 11 Nov 1998, 11:07
NT Unix pack shipping next month

Connect your Unix box to an NT system! See how much better NT is! Adopt NT instead of Unix! Or so the theory goes...

Microsoft is to follow up the release of Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 4 with a new add-on that will provide greater interoperability with Unix systems. Windows NT Services for Unix is scheduled to ship in four to six weeks and, according to the tool's project manager at Microsoft, Greg Sullivan, won't be bundled with future …

Business 11 Nov 1998, 11:27
Iomega makes Irish eyes smile

Opens customer satisfaction plant in Dublin

Storage company Iomega said that it will open a 22,500 square foot facility in Dublin's Citywest Business Campus. It is investing I£400,000 in the facility, it said. The office will include a call centre for customer inquiries, a so-called "training academy" for Iomega employees and reseller partners, and a testing and quality …

Business 11 Nov 1998, 11:34
Torch the emails? Intel exec claims Gates considered it

But it seems saintly old Bill resisted Satan's temptation

Showing less than his usual prescience, the author of The Road Ahead seems to have mislaid his maps back in mid-1995. At a meeting with Intel executives that July, Bill Gates is claimed to have said: "This antitrust thing will blow over," and added that the battle with the DoJ so far meant that "we may change our email retention …

Business 11 Nov 1998, 11:46
Iomega sued over Zip-zapping ‘click of death’

Zip maker denies allegations

A group of Iomega customers are seeking unspecified damages from the company over the so-called 'click of death' fault, which destroys data stored on Zip cartridges, the group alleges. Members of the group claim the fault is endemic in all Zip drives constructed after January 1995. Particles of metal and lubricant accumulate on …

Business 11 Nov 1998, 12:07
LG to intro 18.1in LCD

Will show product at Comdex/Fall

LG said it has developed an 18.1in LCD monitor which it will show at Comdex/Fall next week. The unit, called Studioworks 800LC, has a diagonal length of 460mm and is 70mm thick. It weighs 10.5kg. The monitor uses optical viewing angle technology, which it claims offers 160 degrees of viewing from all four sides. The product has …

Business 11 Nov 1998, 12:09
Conexant non exact Texan con

Rockwell Semi changes name

The spun off division of Rockwell dealing in semiconductors has decided to re-name itself Conexant. According to the company, the Conexant name was chosen to represent the company's strategic positioning in comms technologies. More. "Conexant is a newly coined word from three key components -- the verb 'connect', the adjective ' …

Business 11 Nov 1998, 12:32
IBM prepares 25GB drive for consumer PCs

"More capacious than an elephant's scrotum, and just as hard to get your hands on" -- E Blackadder

IBM is readying the release of a PC-oriented hard drive which, it claims, offers the highest storage capacity of any drive in that market segment. The 5400rpm Deskstar 35GP offers 25GB of storage space, three times the capacity of drives found in most of today's consumer PCs. A faster (7200rpm), less capacious (22GB) version …

Business 11 Nov 1998, 12:33
Split-up Microsoft, says Ellison

And in the interest of balance, loosen Sun control of Java, apparently

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has been going for Microsoft again, claiming it's been using a monopoly illegally, and calling for it to be split into two parts. This is a pretty moderate stance by the standards of the day -- current thought is that it should be split into lots of parts: Baby Bills, in fact. But Ellison has plenty …

Business 11 Nov 1998, 12:34
‘Gates unplugged’ session sheds light on 1995 strategy

Notes from Intel meeting record views on IBM, Apple, Compaq, life the universe and everything

Bill Gates gave a wide-ranging briefing to Intel on 11 July 1995, and 15 pages of handwritten notes taken at the time by Steven McGeady have just been released by the court. They are entitled by McGeady "Gates unplugged" and reveal some interesting insights as to Gates' more private views at that time, a few weeks before the …

Business 11 Nov 1998, 13:09
W3C proposes XML query language spec

XQL could turn Web into relational database

The World Wide Web Consortium has introduced XQL, a querying language for Extended Mark-up Language (XML), the proposed feature-rich successor to HTML. The move paves the way for the replacement of HTML, the page design language of the Web, by XML. XML provides content creators define mark-up languages for information specific …

Business 11 Nov 1998, 14:55
Microsoft Web head quits

Higgins departs to spend more time with his family. But I'll be back...

Pete Higgins, the head of Microsoft's online activities, has quit his post and been given an "extended leave of absence" while a successor is found. News of Higgins' decision emerged after he emailed his staff with details. According to a CNet-quoted interview, Higgins said now is "as good a time as any to take a break" which he …

Business 11 Nov 1998, 15:30
Compaq UK assembles anti-direct case against Compaq US

No dissemblers in the UK, it maintains

Compaq Europe is not going direct as fast as the US but is maintaining it still has the option to so do. That follows an announcement in the US earlier this morning, as revealed here on Monday, that Compaq will go head-to-head against Gateway and Dell. Said David Petts, head of channels at Compaq UK: "It's not true we're going …

Business 11 Nov 1998, 16:09
SEC rules-change nets Motorola $99 million

Starfish acquisition didn't cost so much after all

Never let it be said accountancy isn't amazing. Merely tweak the rules, and -- bingo -- Motorola suddenly finds itself $99 million richer. Back at the beginning of October, the phones-to-processors giant posted Q3 1998 results containing a write-off covering in-process R&D relating to its purchase of Starfish Software. Then the …

Business 11 Nov 1998, 16:30
AMD takes brown box route

Under the counter campaign, or what?

AMD is conducting a campaign to convince trade journalists to get its own message across, given its marketing budget is far smaller than Intel's. It does not have Intel's marketing budget and is considered a minnow compared to a shark. On Monday, The Register heard that AMD was selling plain brown boxes containing its K6 chips, …

Business 11 Nov 1998, 16:55
Datatec says g'day to CNI

Latest corporate takeover is fair dinkum, mate

South Africa's third-biggest IT company, Datatec Ltd, has said it will pay up to $25.9 million for Australia's CNI Group (Pty) Ltd to expand its network services activities in Asia. The acquisition represents the next step in Datatec's strategy of creating a world-wide network-based systems integration group under the company's …

Business 11 Nov 1998, 17:43
Microsoft said drop NSP or MMX gets it, says Intel exec

McGeady holds his ground in face of heavy fire from cross-examination

"[Bill Gates] was very upset we were making software of any sort... He became quite enraged." So said Steven McGeady, the Intel VP who led the development of Intel NSP software (to make a computer "dance and sing"), as he continued to give testimony to DoJ trial attorney David Boies. McGeady said that Gates had "made it very …

Business 11 Nov 1998, 17:45
CMG SAPs German market

New deal strengthens CMG's hand in Germany

Anglo-Dutch IT group CMG has bought the CMS Data Consult GmbH for DM 9.25 million. The acquisition extends CMG's base of SAP business and strengthens one of its most important strategic business lines in Germany. Established for more than ten years, CMS provides SAP consultancy and services to companies in the utilities and …

Business 11 Nov 1998, 17:48