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2nd February 1999 Archive

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  • Oops – MS patent lawyers say browser is separate

    Patent contradicts other lawyers' case, apparently...

    The Department of Justice yesterday revealed an embarrassing document for Microsoft - a 1998 US patent where Microsoft's patent lawyers appeared to make it clear that Web browsers and operating systems were two separate things. The patent relates to online banking, and includes the words: "It should be understood by those …

    Business 2 Feb 1999, 08:19

  • A year ago: IBM Ts&Cs roost in Turkey

    Britain was Hungary so it took some Turkey and dipped it in Greece

    The aficionados of the goings on at the now-renamed IBM PC Co will remember that we had many a joke at the expense of Mike Lunch, who is now to take another job at Big Bluell. We suspect that means no more breakfasts with Mike, who formerly worked for Toshiba and was poached from there by Nick Coutts, himself poached by David …

    Business 2 Feb 1999, 08:29

  • Oracle wins Dell for appliance database strategy

    Claims Compaq and IBM to follow

    Oracle CEO Larry Ellison says Dell is to sell Oracle 8i appliance servers using the 'Raw Iron' technology the company unveiled last year. Oracle also won Hewlett-Packard's support at the end of last week, and Ellison claims Compaq and IBM are also close to signing. Oracle's system provides a major challenge for Microsoft in that …

    Business 2 Feb 1999, 08:54

  • STMicro in beta with fast sys-chips

    Apparently, it is rocket science

    Sources a long way away from STMicroelectronics, formerly called SGS Thomsen, tell The Register it has started beta testing a family of superfast processors. Last year, STMicro said it was developing so-called "system on a chip" devices as part of a cunning plan in conjunction with IBM Microelectronics. STMicro, a European …

    Business 2 Feb 1999, 09:04

  • CompuServe UK MD – did he jump or was he pushed

    Wife’s sudden departure may hold answer

    Martin Turner, the MD of CompuServe UK, did not voluntarily step down from the post after two years in the job, as reported by The Register on Friday. According to sources close to the company he was sacked - although the circumstances surrounding his dismissal still remain a mystery. Apparently, Turner only found out that he …

    Business 2 Feb 1999, 09:57

  • Asian component manufacturers at risk from millennium bug

    Sun’s McNealy hits out

    Scott McNealy, chairman of Sun Microsystems, has warned that Asian IT component manufacturers are likely to hit badly by the millennium bug. McNealy claims that the majority of such suppliers - including Taiwanese motherboard makers - are using equipment that may be as much as three years out of date. The head of Sun said …

    Business 2 Feb 1999, 11:15

  • ARM signs up MIPS loyalist Toshiba

    Sales and profits up

    ARM, the Cambridge-based chip design house, has rounded off a good Q4 with its first licence from Toshiba -- for the entry-level ARM7TDMI. In an interview with UK trade magazine Electronics Weekly Gordon Fairley, Toshiba Asic manager, said: "We were a solid MIPS company but we've got customers asking us for ARM -- it's the de …

    Business 2 Feb 1999, 11:43

  • Raza to be FTC vs Intel witness

    List begins to trickle down

    Witness lists in the up-and-coming case of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) vs Intel are beginning to trickle out, according to US reports. Today's issue of the Wall Street Journal claims that AMD's chief technical officer, Atiq Raza, will testify against Intel. Before AMD took over Nexgen, which Raza ran, he worked for Intel …

    Business 2 Feb 1999, 12:20

  • Restructured Skillsgroup sees reward

    Turnover and profit up for the year

    Skillsgroup has announced its results for the year ended 30 November 1998. Turnover rose 16 per cent to £162 million, with profit before tax rising to £14.4 million compared to last year’s loss of £16.3 million. The results followed the year’s restructuring programme, which included dumping the product businesses of P&P UK …

    Business 2 Feb 1999, 12:37

  • P&P founder joins Northamber

    The Fisher King

    P&P veteran Pete Fisher has joined one-time rival Northamber as a non-executive director. Fisher looks a good fit for Northamber. He looked increasingly out of place from the company (now called Skillsgroup) he founded by the time he resigned as non-executive director in 1997. Established in 1998 as a volume distributor and …

    Business 2 Feb 1999, 12:50

  • Hackers can’t crack us, say credit agencies

    Stories of personal details being broken into are exaggerated

    Europe's largest credit reference agency has hit out at reports that hackers are able to break into internal networks and alter sensitive personal and financial information held on databases. Peter Brooker, associate director at Experian was responding to a story featured in yesterday's Daily Telegraph about a man whose details …

    Business 2 Feb 1999, 12:54

  • IBM, HP, Intel and AMD leak new technology

    IEEE conference programme shows seepage

    Major chip manufacturers are set to unveil new microprocessors at a conference in the US in mid-February. The agenda of the IEEE Solid State conference, lists presentations from executives from IBM, AMD, Intel and HP, and accidentally discloses details of chips they have in the offing. According to the programme HP will show a …

    Business 2 Feb 1999, 13:02

  • ITG to go down the Freeserve route

    Plans bolstered by upturn in results

    Internet Technology Group (ITG) -- the UK's largest independent Internet Service Provider (ISP) -- has confirmed it is in talks with a number of media and retail companies to create a "free" Internet access service similar to Dixons' Freeserve. A major partnership is expected to be announced in the spring although the company …

    Business 2 Feb 1999, 13:06

  • UK consumers are gagging for e-commerce

    Lack of services is holding them back

    Retailers are being blamed for the stunted development of e-commerce in the UK, according to a report due to be published later this week by Durlacher Research. Although 30 per cent of home Internet users have already bought goods online, Durlacher found that there are significant gaps between the percentage of those willing to …

    Business 2 Feb 1999, 13:52

  • Apple axes 450 jobs in Cork, Ireland

    iMac production outsourced to LG Electronics' UK plant

    Apple has confirmed it is to axe nearly a third of the workforce at its Cork, Ireland manufacturing plant. Some 450 jobs will be be cut, out of a total workforce of 1400, which comprises 1000 full-time positions and 400 temporary staff. According to sources at the Irish Development Agency, the bulk of the layoffs will be part- …

    Business 2 Feb 1999, 14:05

  • Intel invests in global derivative firm

    Engineering and technical support for Monis

    Global derivative software company Monis said that Intel had invested money in it. The amount was not disclosed. Monis was formed after a management buy out from the London Business School in 1994. Intel will help optimise Monis apps for the Merced and IA-32 platforms. ®

    Business 2 Feb 1999, 14:10

  • Sequent subs out Germany to Comparex

    No job losses

    Sequent, the big-box Intel manufacturer, is to outsource its sales operations in German- speaking countries to Comparex, the South African owned networking equipment reseller. Up to 100 Sequent staff are to be transferred to Comparex in the move, which sees the reseller also assuming Sequent’s sales responsibilities for Benelux …

    Business 2 Feb 1999, 15:58

  • Senior AMD figure called for Jury duty…

    ...and it's the week of the Sharptooth launch

    Richard Baker, senior director of marketing of European marketing at clone chip company Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) will miss the introduction of the Sharptooth K3 chip. That's because the long arm of the law, in the shape of British Justice, has called him up to be a juror in cases as yet untried...

    Business 2 Feb 1999, 16:00

  • German company Siemens owes Brits £50 million

    No buyer for Geordie fab before 31 January

    The deadline has expired for a buyer for the Siemens fab in North Tyneside which means the company will have to refund £50 million to British taxpayers. But the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) still holds out hope of a sale, even though the prospects now look bleak. When the fab unexpectedly shut down in early August of …

    Business 2 Feb 1999, 16:16

  • Victims of government computer foul-up get compensation

    A whole 10 pounds sterling each, two cheers

    People who faced irate landlords and bank managers after a government computer glitch ‘lost’ benefit payments, were today planning how to spend the £10 they are now being offered as compensation. More than 400,000 people are in line to receive the pay-off following a computer failure at the Contributions Agency left many …

    Business 2 Feb 1999, 16:25

  • UK encryption policy damaging to business

    Government called upon to shape up

    The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is damaging UK businesses by delaying legislation on the use of cryptography and other secure messaging systems, according an expert from e-centre UK, a centre for research into e-commerce. Roger Till, director of e-centre UK, who last week gave evidence to the DTI as part of its …

    Business 2 Feb 1999, 17:05

  • DoJ skewers MS exec over falsified video

    Allchin admits in court that his evidence was tampered with, and is now therefore FDISKed

    Microsoft's defence took a potentially fatal hit today in court, as the DoJ demonstrated that a video demonstration had been 'massaged,' and forced Microsoft senior VP Jim Allchin to concede "they filmed the wrong system." Basically, Allchin is in big trouble, and his evidence is toast. The video had been played by Microsoft's …

    Business 2 Feb 1999, 21:07