23rd June 1999 Archive

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Xeon erratum scuttles out of woodwork

A year ago God bless the good ship Xeon and all who sail in her

Posted 24 June 1998 -- a year ago "It's not a bug - it's an erratum," said the Intel rep, keen to get us back on message, following our Xeon delay story yesterday. Sounds like semantic finessing to us. But we'll let that pass. Intel doesn't want to say what the erratumnotbug is, but it does say it will fix it quickly. IDC is …

Business 23 Jun 1999, 06:38
LCDs in elevators give news junkies a lift

The days of looking at your shoes in a crowded lift are a thing of the past

Lifts in New England are being fitted with flat-panel displays showing news and other information from the Internet. The company responsible is the aptly named Captive Network, founded by Michael DiFranza. DiFranza came up with the idea when he was in a lift and noticed how uncomfortable people are not knowing where to look. He …

Business 23 Jun 1999, 07:02
UK extends buggers' charter to Net

Field day for snoopers

Jack Straw, Britain's most illiberal Home Secretary since the last Home Secretary, wants to give Police snooping rights over the Internet. Internet service providers will have to design their systems for easy tapping by police and government spy agencies. The proposed "modernisation" of UK law is remarkably similar to recent …

Business 23 Jun 1999, 07:48
ARM, Lucent and Pavlov's Dog

High saliva count deal

ARM Holdings' relationship with its investors has much in common with Pavlov and his Dog. The Cambridge-based fabless chip company is the master of the well-timed contract announcement. And it gets investors salivating every time. Yesterday, the company unveiled the first licensing deal for the ARM10 -- with Lucent, no less. No …

Business 23 Jun 1999, 08:35
Surcharge imposed on Y2K hoarders

It's called supply and demand

Here's a good one from today's FT. Shipping lines working the Asia-Europe trade routes are to levy a millennium surcharge on freight carried before December 31. And European hoarders are to blame. They will stockpile "millennium related consumer items and computer equipment". This will feed through to a huge upswing in the …

Business 23 Jun 1999, 08:47
Datatec mops up Anite Aussie ops

Which company do you want to buy today

Datatec is extending its Anzac presence with the £10.8 million acquisition of the Australian and New Zealand networking integration businesses of Anite Group plc. The South African-owned IT company will fund the purchase through a private share placing. In November, Datatec paid "up to $25.9 million" for Aussie reseller CNI …

Business 23 Jun 1999, 09:30
"If you're not on the Internet, your company will be dead"

Craig Barrett forgets about sarnie bars and blacksmiths

Intel's Craig Barrett spent an hour at the Dow Jones CEO forum yesterday iterating Intel's Internet strategy. He said that Intel will sell $15 billion worth of its kit through e-commerce this year, and that meant that predictions by both IDC and Forrester Research are likely to be underestimates. He added that 90 per cent of …

Business 23 Jun 1999, 09:37
Hard times force P&I out of hardware

Reseller cuts back, appoints accountants to help it secure trading future

A string of losses and a roll-call of unhappy creditors have forced P&I Data Services to pull out of the low-margin PC hardware market. The Hampshire-based reseller has appointed accountancy firm Baker Tilly to help it put together a plan to keep creditors at bay and the wolf from the door as it goes through a major …

Business 23 Jun 1999, 10:43
Potter bullish about Symbian future

Microsoft, it don't scare Psion

David Potter, chairman of UK company Psion, said yesterday that the Symbian standard was under no threat from Microsoft's attempt to queer its pitch. Speaking at the Dow Jones CEO forum held in London, Potter said open standards were likely to prevail over proprietary solutions. He said: "With Symbian, we have the technology and …

Business 23 Jun 1999, 11:11
PC card slot drive debuted by Iomega

Aims to give notebook users Zip-like storage

Iomega has started shipping its Clik! PC card drive, worldwide. The new drive fits into the PC card slot on a notebook and accommodates 40MB Clik! disks. Jeff Jeter, MD of Iomega commented: "The Clik! PC Card is meeting with a positive response in Europe." Iomega says that as this drive comes without the fuss of extra cables, it …

Business 23 Jun 1999, 11:13
Wanna know which firms made your branded notebooks in 1998?

We're just about to tell you...

Everyone knows that Taiwanese companies make notebooks for big companies like IBM, Compaq, Dell and HP. But which company makes what? Here's the OEM list, courtesy of a Taiwanese wire. Quanta makes Gateway, Dell, IBM, Apple and Siemens products. Acer makes IBM and Hitachi products. Inventec makes Compaq notebooks. Compal makes …

Business 23 Jun 1999, 11:22
NEC and Hitachi merge DRAM ops

Japanese alternative to throwing in the towel

NEC and Hitachi are pooling their DRAM operations into a new joint venture company. This will design, build and flog memory chips under a single, unified brand. The Japanese giants are committed to staying in the DRAM game. But they are too small to play on their own. By huddling together, NEC and Hitachi reckon they can ride …

Business 23 Jun 1999, 11:36
HP, EMC get into store rage (geddit!?!)

You're terminated, EMC

After the public humiliation HP delivered at its Stress Free conference in New York a few weeks ago, the company has finally put the boot into EMC's goolies by terminating its storage agreement with the firm. HP said EMC will continue to work together on interoperability and that warrants and contracts for existing customers …

Business 23 Jun 1999, 11:45
Intel will have several .18 micron fabs early next year

Israeli .18 micron fab just opened

The CEO of Intel said yesterday that his company was on track with its plans to move to the .18 micron process in its fabrication plants. Craig Barrett, Intel's CEO, confirmed that an Israeli fab opened earlier this week will use the .18 micron process and will start production in Q3. "It will ramp to fill up the end of year …

Business 23 Jun 1999, 12:00
StrongARM safe in Intel's hands

Cast iron future, CEO says

Craig Barrett, Intel's CEO, said yesterday that it was happy with the StrongARM architecture as a building block for Web appliances and the like, and that it was not considering adopting any new chip architecture for the burgeoning market. Barrett, speaking at a Dow Jones Q&A session in London yesterday, was, however, unwilling …

Business 23 Jun 1999, 12:00
Vanguard bites into Powerchip

DRAM consolidation, Taiwan-style

Vanguard (VIS), the Taiwanese DRAM maker, is paying Mitsubishi (and other unnamed owners) $84 million for an 11 per cent stake in local rival PowerChip. Vanguard, Mitsubishi and Powerchip say they will work together on DRAM design and manufacturing. This will help them keep up with the Koreans and Micron, of the US. Mitsubishi, …

Business 23 Jun 1999, 12:03
Compaq to sell AltaVista to investment house

Major Lycos shareholder touted as buyer as plans of IPO fade away

The investment company responsible for the collapse of the Lycos/USA Networks merger now looks set to take AltaVista off Compaq’s hands. According to US sources, investment firm CMGI is in talks with Compaq to buy a range of Web-based assets from the PC giant, valued collectively at somewhere between $2 billion and $3 billion. …

Business 23 Jun 1999, 12:38
World+dog watching Intel share price

Share Tip It fell, it rose, it fell again. Is it a Phoenix, then?

Small investors are considering whether to put more money into the Intel Corporation (INTC) after a series of downgrades last week. But, as you know, The Register thinks Intel is a big buy at present. We also firmly believe Compaq is undervalued, big time. But we're not making any kind of connection between the two. We predict …

Business 23 Jun 1999, 15:22
Outsiders wonder about Motorola, inside

Share Tip, Share Loss Sixteen bucks in ten days? What's going on?

As a consequence of having to attend the Dow Jones conference in London, yesterday, we also had to talk to other people besides Intel. You wouldn't believe it from our level of Intel coverage, but it is true... One very nice lass who worked for Madge Networks but neglected to leave her card in our tender care, told a guy from …

Business 23 Jun 1999, 15:31
Intel Profusion technology on time, shock horror…

Forget anything you read elsewhere

You, and Andy Grove, might think this site is anti-Intel. We're not. We're just against paranoia. A couple of weeks ago we tried to firm up a story that Profusion (Corollary) technology was late but talked to an HP geezer and an IBM boy who told us different. Now the proof has emerged. Intel Profusion technology is on time and …

Business 23 Jun 1999, 16:31
Palm sales give 3Com a helping hand

Profit warning as company plans restructure

3Com's shares eased three per cent as it issued a profits warning, saying that the success of the PalmPilot had failed to bolster falling sales of older products. The company also said it will buy back up to 15 million of its shares -- that’s about four per cent of the total outstanding. 3Com reported strong fourth quarter sales …

Business 23 Jun 1999, 16:42
Music biz under fire from Web

What happens when you don’t need record companies any more?

The Internet is threatening to revolutionise the way the music industry does business, according to research from the City University business school. The study concluded that the digital music market will extend commercial opportunities to both the legitimate and criminal industries. Research by Jupiter Communications predicts …

Business 23 Jun 1999, 16:43
iMac notebook OEM tells all

First shipments in August

So, when is the much hyped Apple iMac-based notebook going to make it onto the shelves? Apple won't say, but its OEM is a little looser of lip with the information. Taiwanese manufacturer Alpha Top -- for it is they -- says it plans an initial shipment of iMac notebooks in August. Named as the exclusive manufacturer in Q4 of …

Business 23 Jun 1999, 16:44
Mike Magee receives x.86 org prize, proudly

It's the order of the bootstrap

Pictured below is Mike Magee, photographed by his wife and son, proudly wearing the Intel Secrets merchandise. Robert Collins, who runs the site, awarded Magee the prize after he pointed out that Intel had tried to register the loop, outside, as a trademark. (Story: Intel registers loop to stop people going inside)) Collins …

Business 23 Jun 1999, 20:11