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20th October 1999 Archive

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  • MS trial judge announces day of verdict

    MS on Trial But not, merry prankster, the date...

    Exactly a year after the Microsoft trial began on 19 October, Judge Jackson has announced that his findings of fact will be issued on a Friday at 18:30 EDT, which is to say 23:30 BST. But he didn't say which Friday. The reason for this announcement was really a matter of courtesy to both sides, so that they can be equally …

    Business 20 Oct 1999, 06:45

  • MS pricing and ‘bounties’ nix Gates honorary degree

    Opponents say Great Man makes software less accessible to the poor

    Canada's University of Victoria has decided not to award Bill Gates an honorary degree, with opponents arguing that Microsoft had often made computers less accessible to people with little money. Bill's failure to qualify is revealed in details of a closed University academic board meeting, details of which have fallen into the …

    Business 20 Oct 1999, 08:19

  • NatSemi to build Linux version of Webpad info appliance

    Multi-OS variants to follow QNX reference design

    A NatSemi announcement yesterday reveals that the company is working on multiple operating systems, including Linux, for its Geode Webpad wireless information appliance. The Webpad has been on the stocks for some considerable time now, and had been expected by the middle of this year. NatSemi's sale of Cyrix however will have …

    Business 20 Oct 1999, 09:01

  • Tera: the chip that likes to say yes 128 times

    Forget the Alpha, the chip that time forgot

    Space is, of course, the final frontier. The place where you can boldly split infinitives where infinitives have never been boldly split before. We're not sure how we missed Tera, a chip fabbed up by Taiwanese outfit TSMC. But a reader has pointed us to an interesting Nasa document here which discusses how the company's …

    Business 20 Oct 1999, 09:37

  • Mondus seeks patent for way it does ecommerce

    Tender foots

    Two twenty-something e-ntrepreneurs who scored £1 million in venture capital after winning a competition in the Sunday Times six months ago have finally launched their new e-business. What's more, they're looking to protect their investment by patenting their e-commerce platform in much the same was as Priceline.com. Although …

    Business 20 Oct 1999, 09:54

  • MS CFO doesn't expect Win2k revenues before mid-2000

    Which must mean a very slow rollout, friends...

    Greg Maffei, Microsoft's CFO, cautioned financial analysts yesterday not to expect a spike in revenue when Windows 2000 was delivered. He expected to see a slow build up in demand, with little impact in the current financial year: "Don't expect Windows 2000 income in fiscal 2000 [end of June]," he said. This would seem to …

    Business 20 Oct 1999, 10:55

  • Insight deal no big deal, says Action man

    Lewis claims future is still positive despite acquisition set-back

    Action Computer Supplies said it would not be courting more suitors after getting dumped by its US beau this week. Henry Lewis, Action's chairman, told The Register there was a sense of relief at the reseller now that prospective US buyer Insight Enterprises had finally walked away from the deal. And he stated that the company …

    Business 20 Oct 1999, 11:21

  • Metered Net calls are damaging UK economy

    AOL boss hits out at telco industry

    The UK economy will suffer long term damage unless the country changes its policy towards charging Net users for every second they spend online. Andreas Schmidt, AOL Europe's president and CEO, delivered this now well-worn message yesterday as part of his keynote speech at the Jupiter Consumer Online Forum in London. He used the …

    Business 20 Oct 1999, 11:27

  • Are you being served by Intel Xeons?

    Roadmap High end CPUs are not cheap chips

    In the last instalment of our Intel roadmap roundup, we'll look at the IA-32 server market. It's a cash cow both for Intel and its PC customers. If this high end market ever dries or ever becomes seriously threatened by rivals the chip giant will be in deep trouble. Intel segments its server processors in six price categories. …

    Business 20 Oct 1999, 12:04

  • MS turns in whopping 41 per cent net profit

    Nice work if you can get it - but the OEM sales team wouldn't let you...

    Despite Microsoft's first quarter ending 30 September showing 7 per cent lower revenue than the previous quarter, as well as net income down 0.5 per cent, this is not the story being reported today. Microsoft prefers to make comparisons with the year-earlier quarter, which shows its results in a better light. Revenue was $5.38 …

    Business 20 Oct 1999, 12:18

  • Free Britannica to cut off Encarta's air supply?

    The old guard goes portal in bid for survival

    Encyclopaedia Britannica, founded in 1768 by three Scottish printers, became free on the Web from yesterday, at www.britannica.co.uk It had previously made most of its revenue from sales of a $60 CD-ROM, and online access fees. Britannica.co.uk is a new company that may seek an IPO, and is run by Don Yannias, who was previously …

    Business 20 Oct 1999, 12:22

  • Cobalt drops MIPS for x86 in next-gen server appliance

    300MHz AMD K6-2 based RaQ 3 to be launched next week

    Server appliance specialist Cobalt has thrown out MIPS and embraced x86 for the next generation of its RaQ server line, due to be launched new week. And it is likely to migrate its whole line over to x86 within six to eight months. The current RaQ 2, launched last March, is based on a 250MHz MIPS chip. The new model, the RaQ 3, …

    Business 20 Oct 1999, 12:36

  • CHS sheds seven to boost confidence

    Divisions handed back to original owners as debt slashed

    CHS Electronics is culling seven of its operations in a bid to cut debts. The distributor said it had returned its interests in four subsidiaries to the original owners of each company in non-cash deals. It will keep a small part interest in each company, with an option to re-buy the rest later. In a company statement, CHS said …

    Business 20 Oct 1999, 12:39

  • ATI brings Rage 3D acceleration to open source world

    Begins Linux driver development

    ATI has followed rival 3D graphics specialists 3dfx and Nvidia onto the Linux bandwagon with the open source release of its Rage chips' 3D acceleration and multimedia specs. The company also said it has contracted software house Precision Insight to develop a set of open source Linux drivers for its Rage 128 technology. ATI said …

    Business 20 Oct 1999, 13:08

  • Palm pledges colour screen handheld for 2000

    Motorola Dragonball VZ CPU leads the way

    Palm Computing finally responded to Palm users' most frequently made request, yesterday, when it pledged to release a Palm handheld with a colour screen during the first half of 2000. The announcement was made at the PalmSource developers conference by one Michael Mace, Palm's chief competitive officer, whatever the heck that is …

    Business 20 Oct 1999, 13:28

  • RealNetworks slides out of the red

    Digital music strategy set to outweigh media streaming efforts

    RealNetworks, the Internet media streaming market leader, has finally begun making money: its latest fiscal figures, released yesterday, showed a profit of $3 million for its third quarter on revenues of $34.9 million. This time last year, the company recorded revenues of $17.7 million (making for a 97 per cent increase year on …

    Business 20 Oct 1999, 14:08

  • MS wireless deal with Symbian on the cards?

    If not, NTT DoCoMo is choosing a funny set of partners...

    Microsoft and the Symbian alliance are deadly rivals, but the evidence that sooner or later (probably sooner) they're going to have to work together is becoming compelling. The latest signpost is a mobile data alliance between Microsoft and NTT DoCoMo which is due to kick off later this month, according to Japanese reports. The …

    Business 20 Oct 1999, 14:32

  • Acer, TSMC to expand in Taiwan despite quake

    More fabs to come online next year

    The two largest computer companies on Taiwan said today that they will continue to expand their operations, despite the earthquake that hit the island in September. According to the Computex trade show site, Acer and TSMC will continue to build fab plants in Taiwan, with TSMC putting plans in place to build six eight-inch wafer …

    Business 20 Oct 1999, 15:42

  • Intel i820 update leaks

    More on them thar Rambus RIMMs

    An internal Intel slide has revealed more details about the Rambus memory problem which scuttled the launch of the i820 Camino chipset, causing angry flushed faces at Chipzilla Central. And an Intel customer, who does not wish to be named, has now told us that he is expecting his two-RIMM mobos to arrive in late November. …

    Business 20 Oct 1999, 16:14

  • MS cuts out channel to sell direct

    US customers can buy MS product online, bypassing resellers

    Microsoft is usurping the channel through its re-launched Web site which sells products direct to customers. The software giant is selling its own software and hardware direct through its online store shop.microsoft.com. The Web site was originally launched in March, when customers could choose to buy through four resellers -– …

    Business 20 Oct 1999, 16:31

  • Dreamcast Net access a ‘not access’ say users

    BT creaks under the strain, fails to cope with demand

    Sega's European Dreamcast launch last week has been marred by the problems buyers of the next-generation games console have had using it to access the Internet. The Register has received a number of reports from Dreamcast users who have entirely failed to get online, including indications that no one at all has been able to get …

    Business 20 Oct 1999, 16:36

  • Consumers face PC confusion post-Coppermine launch

    New features unlikely to be flagged on systems

    Unwary buyers of PCs in the run-up to Yule could find themselves buying a pup unless they closely question retailers about which Intel chip is inside. Next Monday, Intel will introduce its better Coppermine technology, and at the same time introduce a whole batch of variations on the Pentium III theme. The introduction is …

    Business 20 Oct 1999, 17:26

  • Copper Athlon hits 900MHz, AMD cranks 1GHz-plus production

    As Fab 30 opens, company promises chips on sale in Q2

    AMD says it has already produced a copper interconnect Athlon running "at speeds in excess of 900MHz" at its Dresden Fab 30, which formally opened today. The chip was a pre-production version, but AMD intends to bring copper Athlon production fully on-stream at Dresden later this year. This however will be the qualification …

    Business 20 Oct 1999, 18:41