18th August 1999 Archive

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Coppermine Celeron waiting in wings

New lamps for old...a PIII by any other name

A source claimed Intel is readying a Coppermine Celeron with as much as 256K of on-die cache, screaming Cindy (SIMD) instructions, and a 100MHz front side bus using Socket 370. That would make it equivalent to current Pentium III technology, in the same way that the Celeron is really a cut Pentium II. No release date was given …

Business 18 Aug 1999, 07:12
Intel re-marks own chips

Four years ago Trading standard body lets Satan off the hook

From The Register No. 20, August 1995 Loyal readers will remember how The Register got itself in trouble with the great Satan of Chips (Intel, for those of you with no imagination), earlier this year. We'd said Intel had re-marked its own chips and for reason best known to itself, Andy's company went a bit incandescent. We can …

Business 18 Aug 1999, 07:22
Jungle customers earn discounts through free ISP

£7.5 promotional spend

The drums are beating even louder for Jungle.com -- the brand new e-store with the Amazonesque name -- which opens its door for business on August 30. The 3i-backed online department store kicks off with a £7.5 million marketing spend; most of the first slug goes on traditional media – billboards, radio, national newspapers and …

Business 18 Aug 1999, 08:05
Special report: MS on the threat from Linux et al

MS on Trial And how a clutch of outfits are doing well against MS, really...

Open Source and Linux Microsoft just does not understand the open software movement because it fails to comprehend that public recognition for writing good software can do more for the psyche than a bundle of Microsoft shares. Microsoft does admit that "the open source movement provides high quality software products" and it …

Business 18 Aug 1999, 08:17
Special report: MS on the Netscape-AOL deal

MS on Trial The company views this as a last minute lifebelt

Microsoft evidently considers that its strongest argument concerns AOL's acquisition of Netscape, since it led its document with this. Microsoft claims that "the relative usage shares" of IE and Navigator "are not markedly different from when the case began [in May 1998]". Microsoft then goes on to claim that therefore this " …

Business 18 Aug 1999, 08:18
Special report: MS on the threat to its position

MS on Trial It's three-pronged, apparently

Having removed the threat of competing operating systems through OEM licensing moves, Microsoft spends most of the technical part of its claims in being worried by what it calls three middleware technologies: Netscape's browser; Java; and Lotus Notes/Domino (about which it has almost nothing to say). Considerable attention is …

Business 18 Aug 1999, 08:19
Special report: Microsoft's pitch on antitrust

MS on Trial No monopoly power, just market power, right?

The plain fact is that Microsoft has monopoly power in the operating systems market for Intel-compatible processors, and now in browsing software, but is not willing to own up to it (although it does agree, nudge, nudge) to having market power. It claims it has not abused its power or suppressed competitive threats, but will not …

Business 18 Aug 1999, 08:20
Special report: Trial truth according to Microsoft

MS on Trial We analyse Microsoft's mammoth version of trial events

Microsoft trial judge Thomas Penfield Jackson now has substantial documents from both Microsoft and the DoJ - these "Proposed Findings of Facts" are the rival parties' interpretations of what was really established as fact during the trial proceedings. Microsoft's document, analysed here, puts forward the company's own curious …

Business 18 Aug 1999, 08:21
Bandwidth costs in UK too high

Survey Nearly half of small businesses still using modem connections

Adoption by small and medium businesses is being held up by the high price of bandwidth, according to a senior analyst at Durlacher Research. The claim came as Durlacher, which monitors Internet growth, released its latest report on the impact of the medium on the small business market. Sarah Skinner, the senior analyst, said …

Business 18 Aug 1999, 11:10
Happy Cat doc reveals Intel chipset futures

There's new codenames to juggle with

The application of Lernout & Huspie translation software to a Japanese Web site has provided intriguing insights into Intel's future plans. Two days back, we reported the existence of the roadmap, with dates for up-and-coming Intel technology including Coppermine, Willamette, Timna and Foster. According to the translated …

Business 18 Aug 1999, 12:00
Big Blue to push Linux supported twin-600MHz box next week

Netfinity aimed at small business market

IBM said this morning it will release a low price small business server with dual 600MHz Intel chips and 1Gb of memory. But IBM could not tell us how much the 3500M10 will cost, because Intel is set to adjust its pricing this weekend. The box will be the first to come with IBM's 90 day server support for Linux, which it …

Business 18 Aug 1999, 12:04
Tom's Hardware speaks out over alleged Intel mobo muscle

Did Chipzilla put pressure on Taiwanese over Athlon K7?

Dr Tom Pabst, who founded Tom's Hardware page, is alleging that Intel has been muscling Taiwanese mobo manufacturers. Pabst, who has just posted a first look at AMD Athlon motherboards, said there was a "very strong rumour" that Intel is throwing its whole weight behind the threats. That, he says, goes some way towards …

Business 18 Aug 1999, 12:32
Spammer by any other name is still a spammer

Six free hamburgers with every order

Meat eaters are being given the chance to trade their unwanted spam for prime steak and burgers. The Spam Recycling Center (SRC) says it will forward any spam it receives from Net users to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) as part its fight against junk e-mail. Last month it dumped almost 200,000 spams on the FTC and since then …

Business 18 Aug 1999, 12:56
Airport Departure Gates hit by Windows crash

We have the photographic evidence...

The picture says it all... ®

Business 18 Aug 1999, 13:02
Usability is the key for Visio upgrade

Simple as possible

Visio has upgraded its software and repackaged it as 'Visio 2000', just in time for the new century. The new version is faster and has a number of new features, but the company is stressing the improved usability as the real improvement from the last edition. The changes were inspired by research at the company's usability labs …

Business 18 Aug 1999, 13:39
Iridium asks shareholders to cut stakes by 40 per cent

Move to allow bondholders to convert debt bonds to equity

Iridium, the all-but-bankrupt satellite-based mobile phone service, has demanded its shareholders take a 40 per cent cut in the value of their stakes in the company, according to a report in today's Financial Times. The move is the latest stage in Iridium's convoluted restructure. Iridium currently has bonds valued at $1.45 …

Business 18 Aug 1999, 14:05
Be unveils so-so first post-IPO results

Loss wider than last year, revenue lower

Alternative OS developer Be yesterday posted its first financial results as a public company, and they don't look to positive. For the three months to 30 June, Be's second quarter, the company recorded revenues of $537,000. That's an impressive increase of 74 per cent on the first quarter's $309,000, but the quarter-on-quarter …

Business 18 Aug 1999, 14:27
RAM Lifestyles – can they be serious?

What do you call a Welshman with two sheep?

Notice anything different about August 16? That was the day the "RAM Lifestyles" media blitz kicked off. The Council on Computing Power, a new lobby group of memory makers, launched the campaign to raise awareness of the importance of RAM, and divert attention from processor speed. Presumably, Intel is not co-op funding these …

Business 18 Aug 1999, 14:30
AOL figures soar – but not in the UK

Army of ants

AOL added a million new members to its content-rich service in just 125 days, it boasted yesterday, With 18 million members worldwide -- 20 million if you count its CompuServe members too -- the online service provider appears to be growing from strength to strength. But AOL's continued growth is not repeated everywhere. In the …

Business 18 Aug 1999, 14:46
Child porn GP struck off Medical Register

'Totally unfit to retain the privilege'

A doctor was struck off the medical register of practising clinicians after he was convicted for Net-related kiddie porn crimes. According to the General Medical Council, the "offences for which he was convicted in December 1988 are so abhorrent that we consider the he is totally unfit to retain the privilege of registration." …

Business 18 Aug 1999, 14:51
Four letters added to Pentium III make for 10 times price hike

Does Intel have a validation point here?

Sometimes, here at The Register, we wonder whether it's just us reeling at the price of microprocessors. If you buy a stack of Pentium III/Xeons, for example, they'll typically cost you 10 times the price of a stack of bog standard Pentium IIIs. The answer, it appears, is validation. Intel representatives are at pain to assure …

Business 18 Aug 1999, 15:28
Updated: DRAM market calm in July

How come the price discrepancies?

The 30 day rolling average prices until July 30 were 64Mb DRAMs (PC 100 8Mx8) were $6.18 for North America, $5.58 for Europe and $5.75 for Asia. All prices quoted are for major buyers. And don't forget these are very major buyers. And that these prices are historical. Today, you're unlikely to get 64Mb DRAM in the UK for under $ …

Business 18 Aug 1999, 15:31
Computer Warehouse scores zip on Register ChannelMark™

No tech support available on Mondays and Tuesdays, for starters...

Customers of UK Mac reseller Computer Warehouse (CW) shouldn't try to seek technical support or customer service on Mondays and Tuesdays -- if their experience is anything like The Register's they won't get it. "There's no one there today or tomorrow," a hapless CW operative told us when we called to enquire how to get our …

Business 18 Aug 1999, 15:51
Apple, Cisco invest in Net content delivery service

Akamai nets $61.5 million for four and five per cent stakes

Apple and Cisco today took minority stakes in Internet content delivery specialist Akamai. Cisco's four per cent stake was bought for $49 million. Apple did rather better it spent $12.5 million in June for a five per cent stake, showing it's rather better at monitoring share-price movements than is the Great Satan of Routers. …

Business 18 Aug 1999, 16:20
Egg shells out £1m for Excite UK exclusive

Hatched with interest

Excite UK is set to make more than £1 million after it agreed to let Net bank Egg tap into the user base of Britain's second largest portal. Egg recently opened the first Net-only savings account in the UKand no doubt hopes that Excite users will soon begin hatching their own interest for its online banking services. For what …

Business 18 Aug 1999, 16:34
Dell continues to shine

$30m a day online sales

Dell's online sales have reached $30 million per day, contributing 40 per cent of the company's quarterly revenue of $6.1 billion, up 42 per cent on the same period last year. The company reported net income of $507 million, up 58 per cent. In the States, Dell takes the number one spot in the US for sales of PC systems for the …

Business 18 Aug 1999, 16:37
Amazon.com sues Amazon.gr

Beware of Greeks bearing websites

Amazon.com is suing a British company because it alleges it is engaged in "extortion, mail fraud, wire fraud, and criminal copyright violations that form a pattern of racketeering activity". The suit was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware. It alleges that Greg Lloyd Smith, who runs a number of …

Business 18 Aug 1999, 16:51
Fujitsu Siemens merger back on track

Official announcement to be made next week

It's back on. After an apparent dose of last minute nerves, as experienced by many an anxious bride and groom to be, Fujitsu and Siemens are ready to announce that they have tied the knot. Next Tuesday (24 August), in Frankfurt, the two will unveil their merged European PC businesses and introduce the new company's management …

Business 18 Aug 1999, 21:47