10th September 1999 Archive

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Intel burns desktop prices again

Intros PIII/600B, PIII/533B 27th of September

As revealed here earlier this week, Intel will cut desktop prices of its Pentium IIIs and Celerons in the run up to the introduction of the 533B and the 600B, which support a 133MHz FSB, on 27th of September. (Story: Intel 533B and 600B parts the reason for 12 September price cuts) We now have those price details, detailed below …

Business 10 Sep 1999, 07:39
NatSemi on mend

Financials show signs of improvement

The decision by National Semiconductor to get out of its fight with Intel appears to be paying dividends for its share holders. The firm reported a net profit of $47.1 million for its latest Q, compared to a net loss of $105 million in the same period last year. It still turned in an operating loss of over $1 million but the …

Business 10 Sep 1999, 08:03
Big Q gives Register NonStop cold shoulder

You'd almost think we'd scored some Compaq scoops

The new CEO of Compaq, Mike Capellas, was in London yesterday to talk about the company's NonStop e-business strategy. He brought along with him Enrico 'The Cloak' Pesatori, to outline Compaq's strategy. Unfortunately, we weren't invited, so can't report on what happened. And, once again unfortunately, Compaq's PR agency in the …

Business 10 Sep 1999, 08:20
AMD may trash Intel's Merced on price/performance

Irongate D4 chipset holds key to SMP power

Intel's AL460GX chipset may not match the power of AMD's Irongate D4 chipset, which will appear in motherboards in late Q1, next year. Last week, Intel unveiled the Merced chipset at its Developer Forum in Palm Springs, but no details were given on whether its claim of 4.2Gb/s throughput on dual memory buses was for the total …

Business 10 Sep 1999, 08:36
Intel's performance figures for i820, AGP 4X flawed

Semiconductor analyst takes test apart

Performance tests on Rambus and AGP 4X technology that Intel distributed at its Developer Forum last week, do not add up, a semiconductor analyst has claimed. Bert McComas, at InQuest, said that he had tested the program, aimed at supporting Intel's i820 Camino chipset, and believed the benchmark was "ineffective and broken". He …

Business 10 Sep 1999, 09:17
Cadence loses ground in Avant legal spat

But it's not over until the fat lady sings...

Chip design company Cadence has lost a chunk of its legal battle against Avant, according to US reports. Cadence had alleged that Avant thefted its trade secrets, but now a US judge has ruled that a 1994 waiver meant there was no case to answer before that time. But the judge said that Cadence, if it so wishes, can pursue the …

Business 10 Sep 1999, 09:33
BT takes chunk of Italian ISP

Proud owner of one third of I.NEt

BT is to acquire a 32.5 per cent stake in I.NET -- Italy's biggest business ISP-- for £13 million, the telco said today. I.NET -- which expects a turnover of more than £13.5 million this year -- manages the Net affairs of 3,500 large and medium-sized companies including the newspaper La Republica, the Italian Stock Exchange, …

Business 10 Sep 1999, 09:44
HP Loves Linux HP/UX True?

Rumour We're trying to firm this one up...

Speculation is mounting that Hewlett-Packard may cede its Unix OS, HP/UX, in favour of Linux. Reports from insiders close to HP's plans are indicating that the firm is near to making a decision whether to continue with HP/UX or not. Well stranger things have happened at sea. However, last week HP presented details of how it will …

Business 10 Sep 1999, 10:05
Lotus cans eSuite…

...just as interest in non-MS productivity apps flourishes

Lotus has abandoned development of eSuite, its Java-based rival to Microsoft Office. The reason: too few people bought the product. eSuite was launched a couple of years ago on the back of the Network Computer movement and the concept of the 'Webtop'. Since then, the NC has conspicuously failed to take off, leaving eSuite …

Business 10 Sep 1999, 10:26
Citrix shows remote app capability for Palm

Just a technology demonstration, honest...

Citrix's IBM roots were showing yesterday when company CEO Mark Templeton mounted a "technology demonstration" of a Palm Pilot running applications remotely from a server farm at the company's Advanced Technology Research facility in Cambridge, UK. Even during the glasnost period that immediately preceded the appearance of …

Business 10 Sep 1999, 10:34
Gap grants Jobs job

Apple CEO and Gap CEO now both on each others' boards

Back in May, Apple appointed the president and CEO of trendy clothing company Gap, Millard 'Mikey' Drexler, to its board of directors. Now Gap has returned the favour and found a seat on its own board for Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Curiously, Gap's release on the appointment stresses Jobs' role at Pixar above his position at Apple. …

Business 10 Sep 1999, 10:44
0800 ISP touts 24/7 flat-fee access

But £49.99 a month? Ain't that a bit steep

A Scottish ISP is offering unlimited 24/7 access to the Net for a flat monthly fee of £49.99. The service is part subsidised by a banner ad on the desktop that changes every 30 seconds. The management team at 08004u has already established a number of e-commerce partnerships with e-tailers such as WH Smith Online and Lastminute. …

Business 10 Sep 1999, 10:59
Dell tops booming US PC market

Q2 a go-go

Dell topped US PC sales in this year's second quarter, according to research by IDC. The direct seller managed to steal Compaq's thunder by selling 1.8 million units, a growth of 16.6 per cent on last year's Q2. Compaq was shoved into second place with 1.79 million units, up 16.5 per cent. IBM, Gateway and Hewlett-Packard …

Business 10 Sep 1999, 11:09
Audiohighway struggles to push music player patent

Music biz owes us royalties, says patent owner. Like hell, says music biz

Last July online music company Audiohighway.com was granted a patent that appears to give it exclusive right to the concept of a portable digital music player. This week, the company tried to persuade the great and the good of the music industry that they should be talking to it about royalties. Understandably, the music biz was …

Business 10 Sep 1999, 11:13
Boffins squeeze 30x extra life into lithium ion batteries

Elegant and simple solution

You could soon talk on your mobile phone for much longer between battery recharge sessions, thanks to some nifty research from Tottori University in Japan. If the breakthrough gains commercial acceptance, the life of a lithium ion (Li-Ion) battery could be 30 times as long. Li-Ion batteries have a cobalt oxide cathode and an …

Business 10 Sep 1999, 13:23
Cholera virus ‘threatens’ hard drives

But only if it escapes the labs first

Cholera is threatening to break out in the IT community. The filth and squalor of the computer age has led to a new virus, labelled 'Cholera' by anit-virus specialist Computer Associates. This self-replicating, worm-like virus was found in Computer Associates' German research lab earlier this week. Its danger lies in its ability …

Business 10 Sep 1999, 13:27
Intel 810e futures pop up on the Web

PC133, S370, USB 2.0 support whenever...

A hardware site has blown the whistle on Intel's up and coming 810e chipset. HardOCP has come into possession of three Intel slides which outline key features of Intel's platform. As expected, the 810e will support the 133MHz front-side bus and will be pin-compatible with the 810. And again, it will support the S370 socket and …

Business 10 Sep 1999, 13:28
Centrica gases on the telephone

Just say no

Uber-utilities conglomerate Centrica wants to play telephone companies, according to splashes all over today's papers' business news sections. The move follows a discount telecoms to Centrica's Goldfish card holders, which attracted 13,000 subscribers in eight weeks. A company spokesman commented: "There are no firm plans as yet …

Business 10 Sep 1999, 13:31
ePotatoes shout at the Internet

Stress kills

Half of all office workers in Britain have sky-high blood pressure and a tendency to go off the rails and shout a lot when they use the Internet. That's the conclusion of Web company InfoLibria which discovered that workers suffered cyberstress as a result of delays in downloading vital information from the Net. Symptoms of this …

Business 10 Sep 1999, 13:40
Samsung ramps up Rambus volumes

High-speed memory in 'mass-production'

Samsung has set its stall on grabbing 60 per cent of the world's Rambus memory market this year, after saying it's the first company to begin mass-producing RDRAM chips. The Korean vendor estimated its huge slice of the Rambus cake would draw up to $250 million in sales, rising to $2 billion in the year 2000, according to Korean …

Business 10 Sep 1999, 13:42
Laryngitis Bug hits voicemail

So we're exaggerating

So what do you call a voicemail bug, Laryngitis? We ask only because One2One was hit by a bug this week that put some of its customers’ voicemail facilities out of action. One customer, who complained to the telecoms company, claimed to have been told that a virus had hit services. But One2One was adamant it was only a bug in …

Business 10 Sep 1999, 14:14
US helps Russia trash Islamic militant Web sites

Now that's what we call Net Aid

The FBI has offered Russia a helping hand in cleaning up the Web from Islamic militants fighting in Dagestan. According to a report by the BBC the Feds have offered to trash Web sites set up by Islamic militants and "eliminate" them. Although there has been no official confirmation it would not be the first time such tactics …

Business 10 Sep 1999, 14:33
IO Data Device preps $180 digital music player

Due to ship in November

I-O Data Device today took the wraps off its HyperHyde micro digital music player and dictaphone. The tiny 5.4cm x 4.6cm x 1.7cm gadget is set to ship in Japan in November for Y19,800 ($178), according to reports from the Japanese Nikkei newswire. HyperHyde will play both MP3 and .WAV files, storing them on plug-in Flash memory …

Business 10 Sep 1999, 16:43
Govt Net Snoopers Charter slammed

Quite right, too

The IT industry has responded to Government proposals for increased Internet surveillance with a mixture of worry and irritation. The plans would mean a considerable extension of police powers in the UK, and as many as five times the current number of tapping warrants being issued. The plans, outlined in the government document …

Business 10 Sep 1999, 16:47
ICL slashes 700 jobs

Eliminates 'duplication'

ICL will slash 700 jobs in an effort to cut costs by 15 per cent. The company said this would include 200 job losses in the UK as part of its "Project Charlton", according to this week’s Computing magazine. The jobs will be axed from ICL’s operational services division, which employs 11,000 worldwide. A representative told The …

Business 10 Sep 1999, 16:50
Flash!Bang!Wallop! for 256MB Memcorp card

Completes range

Memory Corporation has announced the release of its MemoryGold Professional 256MB PC Flash card. With an expected retail price of around $500, the Type 2 card is intended for the professional digital camera market. It will be sold through specialist distribution channels. David Savage, CEO of Memory Corp, said this complete the …

Business 10 Sep 1999, 16:59
AMI boards Y2K bug fix

Product nib

AMI has launched a new version of its Year 2000 BIOS fix. The Year 2000 BIOS Enabler Board, version 1.4, corrects PC Year 2000 BIOS problems - it monitors BIOS and RTC for proper century rollover. The board hooks interrupt the BIOS system and fixes the bug in case the system is powered on or off during the century rollover. Find …

Business 10 Sep 1999, 17:00
Seagate bundles Mylex

Dealer offer

Mylex has joined forces with Seagate to offer OEMs an Ultra2 SCSI RAID storage bundle. Mylex supplies the RAID controller, while Seagate supplies the drives. There's a variety of bundles on offer, with savings ranging from $80 to $133. The promotion runs until October 29. For a complete list of participating Mylex and Seagate …

Business 10 Sep 1999, 17:06