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12th March 1999 Archive

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  • Intel did not damage employee's psyche

    A year ago Kourosh Hamidi loses Californian appeal

    From The Register No. 70. An ex-Intel employee has lost his case at appeal that the company "injured his psyche" during his employment with the company. Last year, the Workers' Compensation Board in California found that Hamidi had suffered "an industrial injury to his psyche", resulting in temporary disability. But Intel …

    Business 12 Mar 1999, 08:12

  • Too late for MacOS X Server?

    Analysis Linux threatens NT, but it could also hinder Apple's server OS -- unles they work together...

    Apple may have missed its February ship date for MacOS X Server 1.0, but for once a skipped deadline isn't the issue. True, many Apple-watching Web sites have expressed their concern over how the delay might damage the credibility of both Apple and its new operating system, but even a month's delay is as nothing compared to the …

    Business 12 Mar 1999, 08:15

  • Cyrix goes 370 pin

    Happy Cat scratches Cyrixzilla

    Japanese Web site Happy Cat is listing a Cyrix 370-pin processor called the MXs which it says will be available in early April. No wonder Cyrix is keeping quiet about its product plans. According to the Japanese text, which one of our readers kindly translated for us, the product uses the Cayenne core and comes with 256K of …

    Business 12 Mar 1999, 08:29

  • Cyrix to go 370-pin in April?

    Happy Cat scratches Cyrixzilla

    Japanese Web site Happy Cat is listing a Cyrix 370-pin processor called the MXs which it says will be available in early April. Specifically, it will be released on the 6 April next. No wonder Cyrix is keeping quiet about its product plans. There's no point us asking Cyrix about any of this, because this week has shown us it won …

    Business 12 Mar 1999, 08:29

  • NatSemi has lots of fabs but sells few x86 chips

    Only real men have fabs but so what?

    NatSemi made a loss of just over $27 million in its latest financial quarter and said it was partly due to poor sales of its Cyrix chips. Turnover fell to $550 million for the Q, compared to $600 million in the same Q last year. On the other hand, AMD said it will make a significant loss but if only it had loads more fabs, it …

    Business 12 Mar 1999, 08:44

  • Microsoft caught with pants down over hardware IDs

    After the brouhaha, we take a closer look at MS' privacy crises

    Microsoft has brought upon itself two major privacy crises, one connected with Windows 98 hardware identification (it's calling it HWID) and the other with document identification in Office. Windows 98 must be registered, supposedly to make it possible for Microsoft support technicians to troubleshoot problems by knowing what …

    Business 12 Mar 1999, 10:36

  • iMac sales return to launch peak

    Apple takes of advantage of pre-PIII Wintel slowdown

    iMac sales shot back up to their original level in January, according to the latest figures from research agency ZD Market Intelligence (ZDMI). ZDMI's figures derive from a survey of US retail outlets. They show that the iMac accounted for 6.6 per cent of retail PC sales in January. That's exactly the same share the consumer …

    Business 12 Mar 1999, 11:29

  • Iomega recalls 60,000 Jaz PSUs

    All drives shipped since 1 September 1998 may be affected

    Iomega has issued a recall for over 60,000 power supply units which it shipped with external versions of its Jaz 2GB removable hard disk product. Some remanufactured 1GB drives may also be affected. The recall is targetting all PSUs shipped from the beginning of September 1998. Over 46,000 of the faulty units were shipped to …

    Business 12 Mar 1999, 11:45

  • Intel stealth-shipping Coppermine in Dixon guise?

    Evidence emerges that serial number "bug" in PII could be a feature

    The reader who gave us our exclusive on serial numbers within Pentium II/mobiles with Dixon cores, has come to the conclusion Intel is stealth-shipping Coppermine early. (Previous stories: Dixon Intel mobile PIIs have serial numbers -- it's a bug and Unique ID codes on mobile PIIs no accident.) Pierre Chassaing, whose Web site …

    Business 12 Mar 1999, 11:54

  • Microsoft to split into four next week

    Speculation over the Baby Bill carve-up grows apace

    Reports in today's Wall Street Journal Europe (WSJE), claim Microsoft is on the brink of splitting into four separate units. The announcement could come as early as next week, the newspaper claims. Although no sources were quoted in the report, the WSJE cited "people familiar with the situation" and claimed the new divisions …

    Business 12 Mar 1999, 12:06

  • Microsoft readies MP3-killer digital music format

    MS format offers better audio quality, twice the compression

    Microsoft will release its own alternative to the MP3 digital music format next month. The new format, MS Audio 4.0, is believed to offer better sound quality than MP3's near-CD reproduction and twice the MPEG-based format's level of compression. According to sources cited by MP3 distributor MP3.com, Microsoft's entry into the …

    Business 12 Mar 1999, 12:20

  • Motorola legals Intel

    Phonezilla takes on Chipzilla over PowerPC trade secrets

    Giant chip company Motorola is taking giant chip company Intel to court over alleged misappropriation of trade secrets related to its "Somerset" project. Its case rests on an ex-Motorola chip architect called Mark McDermott, poached by Intel last year, who subsequently poached 15 other chip designers. (Our story in September …

    Business 12 Mar 1999, 12:31

  • Sun strikes back at Compaq Wildfire claims

    Performance not the issue -- but is UltraSparc III late?

    The battle at the high end ratched up a notch today as Sun hit back at Compaq's claims that Wildfire would thrash its Starfire product (see Compaq details Wildfire attack on Sun). Samantha Owen, enterprise server manager at Sun UK, said: "They [Compaq] are mispositioning their products against ours." She said that Sun's Starfire …

    Business 12 Mar 1999, 12:52

  • MS takes $400m hit to cover Office 2000 delay

    Shifts upgrade income from Q3 to Q4

    Microsoft is deferring the recognition of $400 million of revenue because of the delay to Office 2000. This means almost certainly that the revenue for Microsoft's third quarter ending 31 March will be its biggest sequential decline in its history: down to $4.2 billion from $4.65 billion. A panic conference call with financial …

    Business 12 Mar 1999, 13:10

  • Senator tries to axe DoJ Microsoft trial funding

    MS on Trial Trial just a cover for Al Gore's election campaign, claims Gorton

    Senator Slade Gorton is trying to stop a 15 per cent increase in US Department of Justice funding, because "they've demonised the most innovative, extraordinary world-changing engine for progress that this world may ever have seen". In case Register readers are as mystified as we were as to the identity of this innovator, Gorton …

    Business 12 Mar 1999, 13:17

  • AMD hit with class action

    Suit alleges chip maker over-inflated K6 sales projections

    AMD is the recipient of a new class-action complaint, filed yesterday in the District Court for Northern California. AMD and its CEO, Jerry Sanders, are charged with security law violations following projections for K6 demand that excited financial analysts, and resulted in AMD shares rising from $17 on 22 October 1998 to $32 …

    Business 12 Mar 1999, 13:21

  • MS planning Win 98 follow-up?

    As Win2k is u/s for the consumer market, we figure a quick and dirty revenue-generating 9x rev

    In among the rumours that Microsoft's long-expected split into four divisions (see earlier story) is due to take place next week there's an interesting little nugget: according to the Wall Street Journal, which today chases after a story that first broke surface over a month ago, senior VP and butterfingered video impressario …

    Business 12 Mar 1999, 13:52

  • CompUSA bans obscene IT publication

    Magazine advocates buying fewer PCs -- and it got banned by a PC reseller? No way!

    America's largest chain of IT superstores has refused to sell a new computer magazine because it claims it is littered with obscenity. Although CompUSA has removed all unsold copies of In Formation from its shelves, it confirmed it has not received a single complaint from consumers. But publisher David Temkin believes CompUSA …

    Business 12 Mar 1999, 13:52

  • Paedophile priest on trial in US

    Stands accused of being part of Web porn ring

    A priest has gone on trial in the US charged with trafficking child pornography on the Internet. Reverend Robert Orr denies that he downloaded pictures of naked young boys and distributed them to other online paedophiles. Claiming to be a computer novice and a Net virgin, the Rev said he stumbled upon the images by mistake when …

    Business 12 Mar 1999, 13:56

  • End of the line for Apricot UK

    Mitsubishi cans PC sales and development

    Mitsubishi will stop making and designing PCs in the UK from June, resulting in an extra 200 job losses. The Japanese manufacturer said yesterday it would stop the PC hardware design and manufacturing business of Apricot Computers, a division of Mitsubishi Electric PC. In a letter to resellers from the president of Mitsubishi …

    Business 12 Mar 1999, 15:35

  • Latin American telecomms firm falls for BT

    Hey muchacos, ay carumba and lots of other Latino clichés

    BT is to buy a 20 per cent stake in a leading Latin American telecomms company. Dancing the tango with a red rose clamped between its teeth, BT serenaded ImpSat with a £90 million bid the company simply couldn't refuse. ImpSat, which has networks in key cities in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Venezuela, will …

    Business 12 Mar 1999, 15:48

  • Pentium II Xeons have serial number too

    This is proliferation of the PSN, big time

    Pentium II Xeons also have personal serial numbers, a reader told The Register today. That is in line with senior VP Pat Gelsinger's statement at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) two weeks ago. He said in September last year that Intel would proliferate the ID numbers on every chip, bar none. ®

    Business 12 Mar 1999, 16:01

  • Gelsinger “brains” behind shipping chips with PSN on

    We're glad we didn't ask "Kicking Pat" the obvious question

    At an Intel lunch at its Intel Developer Forum two weeks ago, Pat Gelsinger admitted he was the brains behind shipping the Katmai-PIII with the ID number switched on. We were interested in this PR disaster. Sometimes, to outsiders like us, Intel seems like a lumbering dinosaur where the brain doesn't know why the tail is …

    Business 12 Mar 1999, 16:13

  • Ericsson unveils Symbian-based palmtop

    First computer using Symbian technology boosts Psion

    Mobile phone maker Ericsson today unveiled the first palmtop computer based on Symbian technology. Symbian founder Psion -- the other backers are Motolora, Ericsson and Nokia -- will be manufacturing the Ericsson MC218, which is due to ship towards the middle of the year. Symbian's contribution is the EPOC operating system ( …

    Business 12 Mar 1999, 16:49

  • Software Stan denies falling demand in PC market

    Slowdown, what slowdown

    Microsoft said yesterday worldwide demand for PCs remained strong, despite a seasonal lag in sales. The great software giant reassured Wall Street analysts that business was fine, after profit warnings from computer companies had raised concerns about the PC market, according to today’s Financial Times. After the close of …

    Business 12 Mar 1999, 17:15

  • Third fighter joins FireWire, USB 2.0 fray

    Reader's Comment Why choose 1394 or USB when 1355's better than both?

    Following our coverage of the 'Intel snubs FireWire' and USB 2.0 debate, we received the following letter from Paul Walker, a representative of the IEEE 1355 Association: Thanks for the articles about Intel's USB 2 and the response from James Snider of the 1394 Trade Association. Mr Snider did not mention that the 1394 standard …

    Business 12 Mar 1999, 17:51

  • Class war breaks out in virtual middle England

    Rival schools from either side of the tracks at centre of flaming row

    Pupils from rival schools in the genteel cathedral city of Ely appear to have become embroiled in an online slanging match. They are using a Web site aimed at attracting tourists to the area to publish their hate mail. For the last two weeks the message board at Ely On-line has been turned into a virtual battleground between …

    Business 12 Mar 1999, 18:56