Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.tech From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: tech Wed, Aug 12 1992 Date: Wed, 12 Aug 92 04:31:16 EDT Message-ID: 08-12 0000 DECISIONLINE: Technology USA TODAY Update Aug. 12, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network LORAL UPS BID FOR LTV DIVISION: Loral Corp., leading a group that is bidding against Martin Marietta to buy LTV's missiles and aircraft divisions, raised its offer to $475 million from $445 million Tuesday. The bid by Loral, the Carlyle Group and Northrop exceeds Martin Marietta's bid by $35 million. Last week, LTV said it would accept Marietta's offer and asked a bankruptcy court to approve the sale. YAMATO-1 TESTS CONTINUE: For the past four months, Yamato-1, a ship powered by magnets, has cruised Kobe harbor in Japan. It's driven at speeds up to 9 mph by water thrust from her stern. It uses magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) thrust, caused by the interaction of electricity and magnetism, and works only in salt water. As summer began, engineers at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries launched full-scale sea trials. (For more, see special Magnet package below.) 1 MILLION COPIES OF IBM SOLD: IBM is expected to announce Wednesday that it has sold 1 million copies of its OS:2 2.0 operating system. IBM introduced the software at the end of March. It said in June that it had sold more than 700,000 copies. LOTUS TO BE USED ON UNIX: Lotus and Hewlett Packard say Hewlett Packard will become the first company to bring a range of Lotus software applications to a UNIX-based computer operating system. The products are aimed at businesses that want to integrate UNIX-based systems into their existing computer systems. BILL COULD HELP DAT MARKET: Legislation that opens up new markets in the USA for the sale of digital audio technology equipment was approved Tuesday by the House Judiciary Committee. The legislation, drafted by Rep. William Hughes, D-N.J., is designed to break an impasse that has delayed the release of DAT tapes and equipment in this country for years. BILL WOULD STOP BOOTLEGGING: Digital audio technology is so precise that sound recordings from digital recordings can be copied with little or no loss of quality. The House Subcommittee on Intellectual Property and Judicial Administration passed legislation Tuesday designed to prevent bootlegging, while protecting a person's right to copy recordings for personal use. USX FORMS INFORMATION UNIT: USX Corp. said its USX Engineers & Consultant Inc. division has formed Information Technologies, a systems-integration, consulting and computer-services unit. The unit will provide computer services to outside companies as well as USX. The unit will have access to USX's computer facilities and will be able to accommodate dial-in, direct link, local and wide-area networks, the company said. COMPUSA TO SELL ACER NOTEBOOK: Acer America Corp. Tuesday said it has reached an agreement with CompUSA. The national computer superstore chain will carry Acer America's ACROS 325SE notebook computer. The ACROS 325SE costs less than $400. It measures 8.5 x 11.4 x 2.3 inches, weighs 6 pounds, has 4MB of RAM and an 80MB hard drive which supports pre-loaded Windows applications. GENIE TO OFFER REDUCED PRICE: GEnie, the General Electric Information Services data network, says it is reducing the price of its daytime access rate for a limited time. Until Sept. 7, daytime access rate has been reduced from $18 per hour to $12.50 per hour. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON MAGNET: YAMATO-1 IN EXPERIMENTAL STAGE: The Yamato-1, a ship powered by magnets, "is still at the experimental stage," Masaaki Hashii of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said recently in an English periodical, 100A1: The Magazine of Lloyd's Register. But Yamato-1 tantalizes marine experts because it dangles the prospect of a revolution in the long-stagnant technology of ship propulsion. MHD COULD LEAD TO QUIET SUBS: The dream of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) thrust is barely off the drawing board. However, its possibilities intrigue many. Researchers at Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago are experimenting with models of MHD propulsion units. The work, funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, zeroes in on developing submarines without sound. POTENTIAL HAS BEEN KNOWN: MHD isn't new - scientists have known of its potential for 150 years. Three decades ago they hit on a potential bonanza: An electric current passed through seawater in a magnetic field causes the sodium and chlorine atoms in salt water to move. "It's a good idea, and we know it works," said Jack Woodward, the University of Michigan's Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering. YAMATO-1 USES TWIN THRUSTERS: According to Mitsubishi, Yamato-1 is powered by twin thrusters. Each thruster consists of six tubes, each surrounded by superconducting electromagnets. Current flows between two electrodes intersecting the magnetic field in each tube. The electrodes are powered by two diesel engines generating 4,000 amperes of alternating current that is converted to direct current. CURRENT CAUSES SEAWATER TO MOVE: In the Yamato-1, the electrical current channeled horizontally across the magnets' vertical field causes the atoms in seawater to thrust laterally. The reactive force causing the water to move "is essentially equivalent to the reaction in an electric motor," Michael Petrick Argonne National Laboratory said. (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