Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.tech From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: tech Fri, Mar 13 1992 Date: Fri, 13 Mar 92 05:47:47 EST Message-ID: 03-13 0000 DECISIONLINE: Technology USA TODAY Update March 13-15, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network SILICON GRAPHICS TO BUY MIPS: Silicon Graphics proposed to buy out MIPS Computer Systems Thursday by using a stock swap with a current value of $329 million. Silicon Graphics is giving MIPS stockholders 0.61 shares of Silicon stock for each share of MIPS they own. Analysts say the merger could create an industry power with annual revenue approaching $1 billion. (For more, see special MIPS package below.) TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER PROBED: The Bush administration is investigating intelligence reports that Israel transferred secret Patriot anti-missile technology to China. A sharing of Patriot missiles or technology would violate Israel's agreement to keep them from third countries. "We don't have any conclusions at this point that we're willing to say," White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said when pressed for details about the investigation Thursday. CHINA HAS BOUGHT HELP BEFORE: The United States gave Israel two Patriot batteries, 20 launchers and 64 missiles, in January 1991. Now, some say Israel has provided the technology to China. China has reportedly used Israel to get U.S. technology for a decade. Industry experts say Israel may be helping China develop missile guidance technology, tank armor and combat aircraft. HITACHI, WANG SIGN DEAL: Wang Laboratories Inc. said Thursday it has granted a license to Hitachi Ltd. to manufacture, use and sell single in-line memory modules (SIMMs) that are protected by two Wang patents. The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Hitachi is the 20th company to obtain a license from Wang since its two SIMM patents were upheld by a federal court in August 1991. INTEL, VLSI MAY SHARE RESEARCH: Intel Corp. and VLSI Technology Inc. said Thursday they have signed a letter of intent in which the two companies are pursuing discussions regarding a technology-sharing agreement. Intel said it would acquire a minority equity position in VLSI as part of the proposed deal. The two companies said no further details would be provided until an agreement was reached. HDTV SYSTEM BEING TESTED: The all-digital high-definition television system developed by Zenith Electronics Corp. and AT&T began testing this week at the Advanced Television Test Center Alexandria, Va. The Zenith-AT&T Digital Spectrum Compatible HDTV system is the third of five HDTV systems to undergo the eight-week battery of tests. The Federal Communications Commission is expected to adopt a standard in 1993. QUANTUM TO UPGRADE DRIVES: Quantum Corp. said Thursday it will begin selling ProDrive 425i next month. The new disk drives are an updated version of the original ProDrive 425 products which have been in production since April 1991. The ProDrive 425i products are intended for use in workstations and file servers. AIRLINE TO USE TI PRODUCT: Brazilian Airlines has chosen Texas Instruments' integrated computer-aided systems engineering product, the Information Engineering Facility as the company's standard for development and maintenance of computer software applications. VARIG is the largest airline in South America. It has purchased TI product. TI has already begun training the airline's staff. LTV GAINS ROCKET CONTRACT: The Missiles Division of LTV Aerospace and Defense has been awarded a $42.7 million contract for production of the U.S. Army's Multiple Launch Rocket System, the firm said Thursday. The contract calls for production of 3,714 tactical rockets and 5,592 practice rockets. MLRS is a mobile automatic rocket system. LTV Aerospace manufactures missile, rocket and space systems. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON MIPS: MIPS NEVER GOT OFF GROUND: MIPS (which stands for millions of instructions per second, the yardstick used to judge the computers' speed) once was hailed as Silicon Valley's next Sun Microsystems. It was bought out by Silicon Graphics Thursday. It never really got off the ground. It went public in December 1989 as one of the year's hottest IPOs at $17 1:2 a share - 30% above its price Thursday. MIPS CHIPS USE RISC: MIPS computer chips, based on a super-fast technique for processing information called "reduced instruction set computing" (RISC), are still the envy of the industry. MIPS never could decide whether it was a maker of complete computer systems, or just the chips that let computers process information. It stunned Wall Street last year with a third-quarter loss and layoffs. OTHER FIRMS MAKE RISC CHIPS: Major competitors including Hewlett-Packard and Digital Equipment announced RISC chips for their own computers, making MIPS' outlook even more questionable. Meanwhile, Silicon Graphics (a MIPS customer) emerged as a computer industry power, making powerful desktop workstation computers that can generate sophisticated graphics. KUBOTO TO OWN 5%: Montgomery Securities analyst Jeff Canin wonders whether current buyers of MIPS chips will worry about doing business with a competitor, Silicon Graphics, once the merger is complete. There's also doubt about what Japanese computer giant Kubota, which owns 17% of MIPS, will do. After the deal, Kubota will own 5% of Silicon Graphics. It won't say whether it will support the merger. (End of package.) Technology Editor: Ed Kelleher. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. 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