The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

16th March 1999 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

  • CeBIT 98 bites peregrinator hard

    A year ago Diary of days dazes a staffer

    Our first appointment at CeBIT 1998 was with Intel, as it happens, fortuitously. It turned out that its stand, in Halle 13, was just behind the entrance gate from the Messe railway station. Here, Great Stan had its famous van along with several BunnyPeople, whose chief function seemed to be to grab hold of visitors and shove …

    Business 16 Mar 1999, 08:27

  • Semi market in Jan slightly up

    Growth in Europe, Asia Pacific offset by drop in Americas, Japan

    The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) said late yesterday that sales of chips in January reached $11.10 billion worldwide. That demonstrates that the market, troubled by the falling price of DRAM over the last few years, is on the up and up, the SIA suggested. The rise, however, only reflects 1.2 per cent growth from …

    Business 16 Mar 1999, 08:41

  • Brussels putsch leaves IT policy in limbo

    And Karel, our grumpy competition commissioner, seems to have been named - wonder why?

    Yesterday we suggested that the time had come for Gates to go. Today, it's farewell to the European commissioners, who collectively resigned around 1am Brussels time rather than face the ignominy of being sacked for corruption by the hitherto-toothless European Parliament. For the European IT industry, not much will change …

    Business 16 Mar 1999, 09:06

  • Nortel's HP, MS and Intel alliance short on detail

    Still no slideware? Talk about Digital Nervous Systems for a bit then, Bill

    Although the Nortel-Intel-HP-Microsoft consortium said it would take voice and data communications "off the drawing board and into businesses", the only evidence at yesterday's announcement was that the four have agreed to work together in some loose fashion. It would seem that the Sun/Lucent alliance has provided an impetus for …

    Business 16 Mar 1999, 09:08

  • ‘I read all my email’ – shock Gates admission

    Bill forgets forgetting last year, and stiffs himself with responsibility for everything, apparently

    Months after his toe-curling, stonewalling video deposition, Bill Gates has inadvertently handed the Department of Justice a clear, concise and (oh dear) totally contradictory statement on what he does with his email. He reads it all, and acts on it. Excerpts from his latest book (sic), Business @ The Speed of Thought, are …

    Business 16 Mar 1999, 09:39

  • AMD tight-lipped about chip futures

    Capacity needed to best Gorgonzilla

    Jonathan Hou at Fullon3D has posted an interview with an AMD executive suggesting that its Dresden fab won't reach full capacity until early next year. That squares with our feelings but AMD is being particularly tight-lipped about its plans of late, as it seeks to supply the demand its K6-2s and K6-IIIs are generating. In …

    Business 16 Mar 1999, 09:46

  • Finding your Pentium II PSN could be a tricky biz

    Chip designer says it needs fancy footwork

    A reader who is a chip architect told us today that finding processor serial numbers (PSNs) on .25 micron Pentium IIs is not necessarily easy. (Story: Unique serial number exists on all .25 micron Intel chips) He said:"The bus multiplier is in that same PIROM [as the serial number] and while there is an interface to the PIROM it …

    Business 16 Mar 1999, 09:56

  • US states mooting $10 billion plus fines for MS

    Bill Gates says he'll give all his money away. Here's his chance...

    US state attorney generals are considering a remedy that could cost Microsoft tens of billions of dollars, according to reports today. If as expected the current antitrust action goes against Microsoft, the company would be fined for each antitrust violation. And the states are considering whether each sale of a copy of Windows …

    Business 16 Mar 1999, 10:19

  • Xeon III prices out…

    It's all change but not small change

    Intel distributors have given us prices for the Pentium III Xeon, which is officially released tomorrow. According to our source, the 500MHz chips with 512K, 1Mb and 2Mb of level two cache, will cost approximately $975/1000, $2000/1000 and $3700/1000 respectively. Pentium II Xeons now cost the following. Again prices are for …

    Business 16 Mar 1999, 11:17

  • Nvidia launches Riva TNT2 to blow 3Dfx out of water

    Hot chip brings in the plaudits

    Yesterday saw the launch of the Riva TNT2 3D graphics processor from pretender to the gaming chip crown, nVidia. The Riva TNT2 combines 3D and 2D performance, the company said, giving 32-bit colour rendering, with a 32-bit Z-buffer and 32Mb frame buffer. Despite not being clocked as high as rival 3Dfx’ Voodoo3 chip, Nvidia …

    Business 16 Mar 1999, 11:28

  • BSA goes gunning for pirates in ’99

    Latest campaign targets small businesses

    The computer industry's software police are clamping down on the illegal use of counterfeit software as part of a major new offensive targeted at the UK's 80,000 small businesses. Yes, the Business Software Alliance (BSA) has launched another crackdown campaign – Crackdown 99. With more than half of all software in use by small …

    Business 16 Mar 1999, 11:38

  • Apple trails Linux connection for MacOS X

    But will the open source world come over all Rhapsodic?

    Later today some of the great and good from the open source world are due to join Steve Jobs on-stage for the unveiling of Apple's new operating system, MacOS X Server. Could this be the day Apple sorts out its somewhat equivocal attitude to Linux and open source software? Apple will be pitching OS X Server as cheap, fast, …

    Business 16 Mar 1999, 11:41

  • Great Stan of resellers shows off its financials

    Another stonking year for Computacenter – it’ll be trebles all round at Babooshka tonight

    Computacenter has reported turnover and pre-tax profit growth in the UK for the sixteenth consecutive year. The reseller giant today recorded preliminary results showing turnover up 39.9 per cent to £1.6 billion. Pre-tax profit rose 37.2 per cent to £64.6 million for the year ended 31 December 1998. The UK company’s earnings per …

    Business 16 Mar 1999, 12:52

  • ORB Agency pushes into objects

    Making money out of CORBA? Whatever next?

    It's not only Microsoft products that take three versions to get any momentum going, it seems. Now that CORBA has notched up its own version 3, all of a sudden the sounds of cash registers ringing up sales are being heard. The latest wheeze is The ORB Agency, a new subsidiary of APPS Ltd which specialises in resources (by being …

    Business 16 Mar 1999, 14:16

  • Watch out for strange containers…

    intro

    According to an impeccable source, Rosemary Rock-Evans of research outfit Ovum asked for an escort (security, that is) before she gave her paper to the IIR "Implementing CORBA in telecoms" conference in Dublin this week. Could it be that she realised her remarks would not be well-received by the audience of hard-core CORBA …

    Business 16 Mar 1999, 14:23

  • Currency set up to aid the take-up of ecommerce

    Beenz, beenz, they’re good for your heart… the more you spend the more you f,f,f… fend off hyperinflation

    The world's latest currency was unveiled today in a flurry of excitement and unbridled optimism, promising to create a new generation of e-millionaires. But the drop in value today of that other fledgling currency -- the euro -- following synchronised sword falling by the European Commission should serve as a warning to all …

    Business 16 Mar 1999, 16:06

  • Phone exchanges blamed for failing Web connections

    ISPs and telcos slug it out in mud-slinging battle

    Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are blaming telecomms operators for the poor performance of their Net services. In recent weeks, Dixons’ FreeServe has been singled out for special criticism as thousands of people have reportedly failed to log on to the Net. But FreeServe blames this on the failure of local telephone exchanges …

    Business 16 Mar 1999, 16:16

  • UK body slams Cyrix/IBM for clock speed adverts

    When is 300MHz really 225MHz?

    The UK advertising standards authority (ASA) has upheld a complaint against Cyrix/IBM and its re-seller Time Computer Systems, for claiming that a chip that in reality clocks 233MHz is being sold as a 300MHz part. In an adjudication delivered in its latest monthly report, the ASA upheld a complaint from someone who said that …

    Business 16 Mar 1999, 16:22

  • Merced dead, says Sun

    They would say that, but they say HP thinks it too. Oh and the UltraSparc III is a bit late

    The question of Intel's Merced's future has again come into focus as a senior executive from Sun Microelectronics described it as a "failure". Harlan McGhan, architecture marketing manager at Sun Microelectronics in California, said: "Everybody's agreed that Merced is already a failure. I'm not expecting very much from Merced …

    Business 16 Mar 1999, 16:34

  • New version of Windows 98 due in Q2?

    Forget convergence on the NT code base - Windows 9x, the Sinatra of operating systems, ain't retiring

    Microsoft has tacitly confirmed that a consumer operating system based on the NT kernel is off the agenda for the foreseeable future. Last week's leaks of the company reorganisation plans had Jim Allchin running development of a new version of Windows 9x , meaning that 98 was by no means the last of the line, and now it seems …

    Business 16 Mar 1999, 16:52

  • IBM ready to goose-step its way into CeBIT

    I was born in Dusseldorf and that is why they call me Rolf...

    It's springtime…for IBM…in Germany -- so it must be CeBIT. But on the eve of Europe's mightiest computer show it seems Big Blur may have become the victim of nasty hacking hoax. On the Big Blur CeBIT'99 home page The Register was appalled to find a picture of a booted and suited man apparently goose-stepping his way to the Messe …

    Business 16 Mar 1999, 17:20