Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.tech,americast.usa-today.tech From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: tech Tue, Sep 29 1992 Date: Tue, 29 Sep 92 04:35:07 EDT Message-ID: 09-29 0000 DECISIONLINE: Technology USA TODAY Update Sept. 29, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network APPLE IS CUTTING MAC PRICES: Apple Computer is slicing prices on its Macintosh personal computers 11% to 36%. The cuts also include Apple's Quadra line, the computer maker's most powerful PC. The suggested price on the Quadra 950 is cut to $8,169 from $9,199. The price on the Macintosh Classic II, Apple's low-cost PC for consumers, is cut to $1,079 from 1,699. NASA DOES WELL IN BUDGET BATTLE: Capitol Hill's annual battle over the NASA budget has ended, and most of the space agency's favorite programs escaped virtually unscathed in the $14 billion 1993 spending plan President Bush is likely to sign this week. NASA's planned space station - the controversial cornerstone of the Bush administration's space program - went uncut despite attacks by lawmakers. (For more, see special NASA package below.) NEW DEC PRESIDENT HAS BIG PLANS: Digital Equipment Corp.'s new president plans $1 billion in cost cuts and major changes to speed the computer maker's product development and delivery time, industry newspaper PC Week says. Robert Palmer, who officially takes over as president of the troubled company Thursday, outlined the changes in internal memos to top employees. Palmer takes over for DEC founder Ken Olsen. CONSORTIUM TO DEVELOP 2-WAY TV: Some of the USA's best-known companies are expected to announce soon that they're cooperating to develop advanced communications networks in up to eight cities by 1995. The First Cities consortium wants to develop software for two-way TV - allowing consumers to directly order merchandise from TV programs or order TV programs when they want to see them. EXISTING LINES WOULD BE USED: A group of companies, including Kodak, Apple, Dow Corning and some regional Bell phone companies, plan to jointly develop software for two-way TV under the name First Cities. The software, targeted for use by 1995, would work with existing phone lines, high-capacity fiber-optic phone lines, TV satellites or cable TV. Trials are expected to include at least 200,000 consumers. HELICOPTER CRASHES DURING TEST: A U.S. Army helicopter testing a new rotor design crashed Monday morning in Wilmington, Del., injuring the two pilots. The company declined to give details of the crash or the test program. The Boeing spokesman said the company was testing a composite rotor blade for the Apache, built by McDonnell Douglas Corp. Boeing has developed the rotors for a number of military helicopters. MICROTEST UNVEILS LAN SCANNER: Microtest Inc. Monday announced the third addition to its MT300 series of intelligent Local Area Network (LAN) diagnostic and certification tools with the introduction of the MT310 Scanner. The MT310 Scanner is designed for LAN administrators:technicians, or small-site installers. It lists for $1,995. INTERNETWORK SNIFFER DUE OUT: Network General Corp. Monday expanded its product family to include a whole new class of product for the growing internetwork market. The new Expert Sniffer Internetwork Analyzer can pinpoint network bottlenecks and offer recommendations to improve bandwidth efficiency, application throughput and response times, the firm said. It will be available in December. MCDATA RELEASES NEW CONTROLLER: McDATA Corp. said Monday it is the first company besides IBM to deliver native Enterprise Systems Connection (ESCON) in a 3270 network controller. Available immediately, McDATA supports ESCON fiber channels in Release 3.0 of the LinkMaster 7100 Network Controller. Prices for a new ESCON-equipped controller range from $14,635 for 16 devices to $30,135 for 128 devices. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON NASA: SOME PROGRAMS ARE CUT: In a budget process that was expected to be the agency's most painful in recent history, NASA's high-profile, big-ticket projects survived. And the agency's advocates at the Capitol are breathing a sigh of relief. But there was some damage. NASA got less than it wanted for shuttle operations and agency personnel and management. LOSSES ARE MINOR: Lawmakers killed some lesser-known NASA programs entirely, including the CRAF program, in which an unmanned probe was to rendezvous with a passing comet and asteroid. But such losses are comparatively minor. "Given the budgetary constraints that we faced ... this is a very good budget for NASA and the space program," said Rep. Jim Bacchus, D-Fla. CONGRESS PLAYS WITH BUDGET: Congress used some creative budgeting. For example, NASA's 1993 funding for development of a National Launch System was cut from a request of $125 million to just $10 million. But the Defense Department, a partner in the project, saw its 1993 share of the work grow from $125 million to $250 million. The result: A net gain. SPACE STATION IS CUT: Space Station Freedom got $2.1 billion - slightly less than the administration requested but enough to keep its development on schedule in 1993. Space Shuttle Operations was cut 5% from NASA's $3.1 billion request. The Advanced Solid Rocket Motor was continued with a $360 million allocation. The Earth Observing System, a planet-monitoring satellite system got the $308 million requested. SPACE PLANE GETS AX: NASA got no funding for continued development of the National Aerospace Plane, a new kind of vehicle capable of taking off like an airplane, reaching orbit, and landing again on a conventional runway. The high-speed transport did receive some money in the budget for the Pentagon, which is a partner in the project, but it wasn't immediately clear how much. (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. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM