20th December 1999 Archive

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800MHz Athlons tip-up in Intel-AMD Desperation Derby

One gigahertz finishing post in sight

The race between Intel and AMD to win the race for the trophy of fastest x86 chip on the planet is a lot like UK major horse race, the Grand National. It's a long haul for both horses, spin jockeys and spectators with many cruel hurdles and jumps, at each of which the nags could well fall over and break their legs. But just when …

Business 20 Dec 1999, 08:40
Intel's 800MHz Spinola

Intel's Advanced 0.18-Micron Technology Enables Pentium® III Processor at 800 MHz

Rather than re-write Intel's 800MHz press release, we thought we'd publish it in full, just so that when you read other accounts of this pre-announcement, you'll be able to see just how much re-writing the other journalists did. To see our views on this announcement, go to 800MHz Athlons tip up in AMD-Intel Desperation Derby, …

Business 20 Dec 1999, 09:52
Akamai signs AltaVista owner for app delivery scheme

First customer for EdgeAdvantage

Net acceleration specialist Akamai's plan to provide application delivery services was given a boost last week when it signed AltaVista owner CMGI as its first major customer. CMGI will use Akamai's EdgeAdvantage technology, announced earlier last week, to develop decision-making software which it can then sell on to businesses …

Business 20 Dec 1999, 10:57
Yamaha brings digital music service on-line

But it's MIDI-based, not MP3

Yamaha has jumped on the digital music bandwagon, days before Sony launches its Net-based digital music distribution service of its own. Curiously, MidRadio's offerings are provided in none of the usual compression formats - MP3, ATRAC3, RealPlayer G2, Liquid Tracks, etc. - but in MIDI form, the electronic musical instrument …

Business 20 Dec 1999, 11:06
Corel takes on US govt over software procurement

Move follows similar case in Canada

Having scored a $6.7 million success in a case against the Canadian government for not following correct tendering procedures, with the result that Microsoft was awarded a contract for Office, Corel announced on Friday it had filed a suit against the US Department of Labor for its procurement practices. It was filed in the …

Business 20 Dec 1999, 11:19
Adobe elevated to $1bn-a-year company…

...even as co-founder plans to quit

Adobe made steady progress in its fourth quarter ending 3 December, increasing revenue to $282 million, up from $247 million a year earlier, and from $261 million in the previous quarter. This makes Adobe a billion dollar a year company for the first time, following 1998 revenue of $895 million. Net income for the quarter was up …

Business 20 Dec 1999, 11:28
The Register's IT Company of the Millennium Award

Clean sweep for computing giant

A panel of seven sages has decided that the prestigious Register IT Company of the Millennium Award go to International Business Machines (IBM). The judges, meeting in closed session in the Freemason's Arms, close to Vulture Central, unanimously agreed that IBM deserved the award because of the services it had delivered to …

Business 20 Dec 1999, 12:04
Millennium IT staff more valuable than nurses

Rates pay reveal sorry state of priorities

NHS IT staff stand to earn 20 times more than nurses working on Millennium Eve. Moon Communications, which provides the computer links between hospitals, is offering to pay workers a £250 bonus to stay at home on standby this New Year's Eve. And they will get £300 an hour if they are actually called in to work – a tidy sum of £2 …

Business 20 Dec 1999, 12:49
Book votes man as book of the year

Amazon's Bezos gets Person of the Year gong from magazine

Amazon.com billionaire Jeff Bezos was yesterday named Time magazine's Person of the Year. At 35, the Internet shopping guru is one of the youngest people ever to grab the title – putting him in the company of royalty and revolutionaries. After four years, Amazon.com is worth an estimated £13 billion – more than the combined …

Business 20 Dec 1999, 13:33
Compaq developing 'BeOS Lite'-based Net appliances

Could soon be Linux-based Net appliances, though...

Compaq is working on a line of Internet appliance products to be powered by Stinger, the cut-down version of the BeOS aimed at such devices. The agreement signed by two companies allows Compaq to distribute Stringer -- which despite statements from National Semiconductor (for its WebPad product) and Compaq has yet to be …

Business 20 Dec 1999, 14:57
Red Hat revenues up – losses way up

Two-for-one stock split coming too

Leading Linux distributor Red Hat today announced a massively widening loss alongside rather narrower growth in revenue for its third quarter of fiscal 2000, its second quarter since it became a publicly owned company. For the three months ending 30 November, Red Hat recorded revenues of $5.4, up 23 per cent on the $4.4 million …

Business 20 Dec 1999, 15:23
Memory stolen at gunpoint was ours, says Dane-Elec

Day's shipment lost as courier's van hit by robbers

The vanload of memory chips stolen in Surrey earlier this month belonged to memory distributor Dane-Elec, it has emerged. This is the second time the Chessington-based outfit has been targeted by robbers since the summer. In September, Dane-Elec's warehouse was broken into, resulting in £100,000 of modules stolen. The latest …

Business 20 Dec 1999, 16:29
Yank consumer report underscores EU privacy concerns

Great timing, eh?

As electronic privacy negotiations between the US and EU deteriorate further in acrimonious deadlock, one of Uncle Sam's own has tossed a bit of ammunition to the opposition. The Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Centre (EPIC) issued a report Friday, Surfer Beware III: Privacy Policies without Privacy Protection, …

Business 20 Dec 1999, 16:46
Cisco buys into optical communications

Bag of tricks growing fast

Pirelli today announced a strategic alliance with Cisco Systems in optical communications. Cisco will make a 10 per cent equity investment of $100 million in Pirelli's optical components division and submarine optical transmission systems division. The agreement includes the sale of Pirelli's terrestrial optical systems business …

Business 20 Dec 1999, 16:52