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22nd July 1999 Archive

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  • Via validates PC133 DIMMs

    ...and so it goes

    Chipset firm Via said it has now validated seven dual inline memory modules (DIMMs) from different manufacturers for its Apollo Pro 133 chipset. The parts come from Fujitsu, Hitachi, Infineon-Siemens, Micron, Mitsubishi, Samsung and Toshiba. Eric Chang, senior product marketing man at Via, said: "We were early to recognize the …

    Business 22 Jul 1999, 07:34

  • Chip companies building DRAM at a loss, says analyst

    A year ago So they're all dumping? Quick, phone Micron...

    Posted 22 July 1998 -- a year ago The DRAM market has now reached the stage where major manufacturers are making products at below cost, and hoping for a miracle, a senior analyst at Dataquest said today. Richard Gordon, who works for Dataquest UK, said that prices of memory products have continued to slump during the first half …

    Business 22 Jul 1999, 07:41

  • AMD must cut expenses – Atiq Raza

    Did he want to sell Dresden fab?

    A local newspaper in Austin, Texas, has secured an interview with Atiq Raza who left AMD the same day as it delivered terrible financial results. The Austin American Statesman, in an interview with the former president of the company, quotes Raza as saying he left his $800,000 a year job with AMD because "something was missing" …

    Business 22 Jul 1999, 07:57

  • AT&T stiffed for suppressing freedom of speech

    It was a set-up, you dummies...

    AT&T has taken the bait laid by a San Francisco grassroots organisation which supports open cable access. The Open Access Alliance, in connection with the Bay Area Open Access Coalition, purchased cable airtime for a TV ad favouring open cable access, which AT&T, through its subsidiary TCI Cable, promptly declined to run. The …

    Business 22 Jul 1999, 09:24

  • Yahoo! helps you find America's Most Wanted

    The US population may soon split into those searching, and those being sought

    When Cousin Henry emigrated to America in the midst of that unfortunate misunderstanding over his signature on a cheque, you expected never to see him again. Cheer up: thanks to portal service Yahoo!, old Henry is soon to be a mere mouse-click away. Yesterday Yahoo! announced plans to host US Search, a comprehensive database of …

    Business 22 Jul 1999, 09:26

  • Compaq strikes $7 billion Taiwan supply deal

    Sixteen companies in Q's supplier chain

    The Taiwanese press is reporting that Compaq has signed a deal with 16 local companies to supply it with components and other PC parts. Earlier this month, Compaq tightened the screw on its Taiwanese suppliers by asking them to drop their prices by 15 per cent. The Compaq suppliers include Acer Semi, First International Computer …

    Business 22 Jul 1999, 10:25

  • Egg scrambles to top of e-banking pile

    Offers saving account where you get charged for not going online

    Prudential's direct banking service, Egg, is to go online in a very wholehearted way. It is the first Internet only savings account in the UK, and can only be opened online. Although it has postal and telephone support, account holders will be charged for taking advantage of these facilities. The interest rate is guaranteed to …

    Business 22 Jul 1999, 10:59

  • Acer to steam ahead with 2nd LCD fab

    Will start ramping in 2001

    The display division of Acer announced yesterday it is to spend NT$25 billion building its second TFT LCD factory in Taiwan. Earlier this month, Acer opened its first factory, which is set to produce up to 300,000 substrates by early next year. According to the report, Acer will use so-called Fourth Generation technology for the …

    Business 22 Jul 1999, 11:08

  • Dinosaur dealers face extinction

    Free PC spells disaster for resellers according to networks distie

    Networking distributor ATL Networks has taken the extraordinary step of issuing a statement in which it predicts the end of the line for PC resellers. The end is well and truly nigh and it's all down to the advent of the free PC, the statement said. ATL managing director, Mark Randall, said: "With the announcement that Tiny …

    Business 22 Jul 1999, 11:23

  • Apple fortunate Intel didn't manage to patent letter i

    Isn't it?

    A few years ago, Intel tried to patent the letter "i", causing much ribaldry and scurr*lous stor*es *n the *ndustry. Perhaps fortunately for Apple, it failed, otherwise we would have faced the funny prospect of seeing Intel sue Jobsworth's company over the use of the letter i in both the iMac and iBook.... ®

    Business 22 Jul 1999, 11:31

  • QNX poised to strike back at Amiga's Linux vision

    Announcement expected this weekend

    Sources claimed that QNX, which was snubbed by Amiga president Jim Collas last week, is set to produce an alternative operating system for the platform. Collas surprised and astonished the so-called "Amigans" ten days ago when he announced the specifications for the Amiga platform, based around the Linux operating system. Since …

    Business 22 Jul 1999, 11:37

  • Compaq to make MegaLoss

    Q2 won't be good for Big Q

    The Wall Street Journal is reporting today that Compaq will make a huge loss when it delivers its results next Wednesday. According to the newspaper, Compaq is likely to report a loss of as much as $230 million for its Q2, which contrasts very badly with its previous Q1 when it made a $281 million profit. And revenues are …

    Business 22 Jul 1999, 11:57

  • Europe drags AOL results down

    Competition from free services slows growth

    AOL yesterday posted 170 per cent profit growth for the fourth quarter, but said Europe was the thorn in its side. America Online reported profit of $156 million, or 13 cents per share, for the quarter ended 30 June, beating Wall Street expectations. This excluded charges for acquisitions made during the period. Figures were up …

    Business 22 Jul 1999, 12:13

  • Nokia makes fortune in Q2

    Euro it makes sense

    Finnish telecoms firm Nokia turned in stonking results for its second financial quarter. Sales amounted to €4,493,000,000, a rise of 45 per cent, with profits increasing by 56 per cent to €881,000,000. That gave Nokia an operating margin of nearly 20 per cent. For the first six months of the year, sales were €8,363,000,000. All …

    Business 22 Jul 1999, 12:20

  • MP3 a problem for big business

    Survey Music may be the food of love but it will costalot

    A market research company has claimed that end users downloading MP3 music files is causing corporate business systems to become clogged. The report, from Computer Economics, says that large corporations will need to clamp down on MP3 downloading, otherwise they will have to spend serious amounts of money upgrading their systems …

    Business 22 Jul 1999, 12:34

  • Acer-Centaur-IDT: denials flow thick & fast

    But the rumours spin on...

    Taiwan's Acer Laboratories Inc is not involved in talks to buy US CPU manufacturer IDT, said ALI president Chin Wu today. Reliable industry sources have suggested that the Acer Group subsidiary may be involved in a purchase of Centaur Technology -- the CPU design division of Integrated Device Technology (IDT) -- or even a …

    Business 22 Jul 1999, 14:10

  • Pub phone price hikes get BT busted

    Calls from some pubs charged at a 200 per cent premium

    BT was fined yesterday for overcharging callers using phones in London pubs. The telecomms giant was caught red-handed after spot checks by trading standards officers in Brent and Harrow, North London. BT was fined £1600 after admitting to four specimen counts of overcharging in Scottish & Newcastle establishments. It also got …

    Business 22 Jul 1999, 14:12

  • Would-be investors say Freeserve registration too complex

    Perhaps they clicked on the wrong buttons...

    Freeserve, the headline-hogging ISP, has been under attack from disgruntled share applicants who are claiming they did not receive their application forms, despite registering online. Online registration was relatively simple. Users had to complete a form, which if they were Freeserve customers was already partially completed. …

    Business 22 Jul 1999, 14:15

  • Xerox celebrates good results by suing HP…

    ...it's almost a ritual, isn't it?

    Xerox managed to turn in a profit for its second quarter and has celebrated by once more suing its most unfavourite company, Hewlett Packard. The company turned in revs of $4.86 billion and profits of $395 million on that turnover. For some reason, Xerox top executives seemed to think that "weakness in Brazil" was a continuing …

    Business 22 Jul 1999, 14:37

  • QNX, Phase 5 to bring Neutrino OS to upgraded Amigas

    Hardware company announces dedicated QNX machine, too

    QNX Software Systems today cocked a snoot at Amiga by announcing a tie-in with German hardware developer Phase 5 to port the QNX OS to Phase 5's PowerUP PowerPC-based Amiga upgrade cards, as predicted here Phase 5 also announced its upcoming multi-CPU PowerPC-based AmiRage K2 system, which will run QNX. QNX CTO Dan Dodge …

    Business 22 Jul 1999, 14:47

  • It's Time for another free PC offer

    Latest system builder to hop on bandwagon

    Time Computers has joined the free PC brigade, offering a £500 computer for a two-year ISP commitment. Users must sign up for the NetlinePlus ISP for 24 months, at £9.52 per month. They receive the 300 M-II Time FreePC, without monitor, for a £39.95 delivery fee. The PC has 300 M-II IBM chip, 32Mb RAM, 2.1Gb hard drive, 32x CD- …

    Business 22 Jul 1999, 15:32

  • BT puts rugby fans online

    Live Web-chat tomorrow to celebrate forthcoming World Cup

    Rugby fans can look forward to a scrum-tastic time on the Net tomorrow thanks to BT. The telco giant is taking time off from cutting off Nottingham's phone exchange and getting into hot water for charging too much from pay phones in north London pubs, to concentrate on its sponsorship of the forthcoming Rugby World Cup. Fans of …

    Business 22 Jul 1999, 15:34

  • C2000 drives a hard bargain for Fujitsu

    HDD deal sees distie push into system builder arena

    Fujitsu has signed Computer 2000 to distribute its hard disk drives in the UK. The Basingstoke distributor has become an authorised OEM distribution partner for Fujitsu's range of disk drive products. Computer 2000 is trying to step up its components business to compete in the system builder market, and became a Microsoft OEM …

    Business 22 Jul 1999, 15:46

  • Keyboard generates electricity for notebooks

    Compaq comes out with some cracking ideas, doesn't it

    Compaq has developed a keyboard that generates electricity as you type, and thus keep your laptop battery charged. This is one of those nifty ideas that seems so obvious once stated that you wonder why you didn't think of it first. Compaq has patented the idea in the US, but it was one of the company's software engineers, Adrian …

    Business 22 Jul 1999, 16:53

  • Pirates found in drilling company

    BSA moves in to make another illegal software bust

    A Yorkshire drilling equipment manufacturer was fined £17,500 for using unlicensed software. Miko Oilfield Supplies was targeted in an investigation into illegal software by the Business Software Alliance (BSA). The global software trade body had identified the manufacturing industry as a likely haven of pirated software. It …

    Business 22 Jul 1999, 16:55