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 Fri, Oct 2 1992 Date: Fri, 2 Oct 92 04:56:03 EDT Message-ID: 10-02 0000 DECISIONLINE: Technology USA TODAY Update Oct. 2-4, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network PALMER BECOMES DIGITAL'S CEO: Robert Palmer, who officially stepped in Thursday as President and CEO of loss-plagued Digital Equipment Corp., took to the podium and promised investors Digital will change. But Wall Street was unimpressed. Digital shares closed down 2 7:8 at $36 5:8 Thursday in active trading. The reason, analysts say, is that Palmer gave few specifics about Digital's future. (For more, see special Digital package below.) FIGHTER SALE LIKELY TO PASS: The Senate Foreign Relations Committee raised questions Thursday about the pending sale of F-15 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, but committee member Sen. James Jeffords, R-Vt., said the sale is likely to go through. "In my mind, arming the region to the teeth is not the way to achieve peace," Jeffords told witnesses from the State Department and the Defense Department. HOMEVIEW HAS NEW BUYER'S GUIDE: HomeView Realty Search Services, a little high-tech firm in Needham, Mass., thinks it has the best way possible of showing buyers as many houses as possible without wearing everyone out. HomeView uses multi-media to show houses throughout the Boston area. A buyer describes what he wants in detail and the computer sorts through its picture index, then walks them around the house. IBM INVESTED IN HOMEVIEW: IBM gave its seal of approval to HomeView Realty Search Services' new computerized home buyers network last month by buying a piece of HomeView. IBM won't say what it paid or how much it owns, but HomeView officials say it's what they need to expand. The company plans to triple the workforce, now at 70 employees, and extend service to the USA's 30 largest metro areas next year. DISKETTE HOLDS 21 MEGABYTES: Iomega Corp. Thursday introduced a 21-megabyte floptical diskette. It offers greater durability, data reliability and system performance, the firm says. The benefits are made possible by a laser etching manufacturing process, which Iomega developed. The new diskette is compatible with all Floptical drives. They cost $35 for one, $155 for five, and $750 for 25. SHL SYSTEMHOUSE GAINS CONTRACT: SHL Systemhouse Inc. said Thursday it has been awarded a $1 million contract to install hardware, software and installation support services to the state of California's Office of Criminal Justice Planning. The designer and operator of computer systems said it may receive additional business from the contract, including a five-year maintenance support agreement. UNDERSEA CABLES TO BE SHARED: Six international telecommunications carriers Thursday said they will share undersea fiber optic capacity to improve the flow of their customers' global voice, video and data communications. This transport capability will involve managing two megabit circuits for switched and dedicated services. It is scheduled to be in operation by the end of 1993. PARADOX 4.0 WINS AWARDS: In InfoWorld magazine's semi-annual database roundup, Borland International Inc.'s Paradox 4.0 was named the fastest personal computer relational database. Paradox was also awarded InfoWorld's Buyer's Assurance Seal for its overall rating. Borland's dBASE IV 1.5 took second place in the same tests. AMERICA ONLINE TO UP MARKETING: America Online says it will spend about 40% more on marketing in fiscal 1993 than it spent in the year ended June 30. This represents an increase to about $7.7 million from $5.5 million. Lennert Leader, America Online's chief financial officer, said the firm will increase spending on programs to package its software with products of other software makers. SKY RADIO OFFERS LIVE SPORTS: USA TODAY Sky Radio launched the first live sports radio broadcast for airlines Thursday on a United Airlines jet. SportsRadio, broadcasting 24 hours a day, seven days a week, gives traveling fans live play-by-play action and updates scores every 15 minutes. On nights and weekends, SportsRadio will carry NFL and college football, major league baseball and NCAA basketball. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON DIGITAL: JOB CUTS ARE CONFIRMED: Robert Palmer officially became the CEO of Digital Equipment Corp. Thursday. Palmer, who was picked to succeed Ken Olsen when Digital's founder resigned in late July, confirmed reports that Digital will cut 15,000 jobs at Digital in the coming year. In addition, Palmer said Digital could cut costs $1 billion over the coming year. PALMER TO APPOINT NEW TEAM: Offering few other specifics, Palmer said he would appoint a new senior management team. Palmer said he soon would name a vice president of engineering, a person who can help Digital cope with changes in technology and guide it through a transition to computers that can run more than Digital software. ALPHA CHIP SEEN AS FUTURE: Palmer said Digital's sales force would become more aggressive. Digital's sales force will operate on a commission basis beginning in January. Palmer also said the future of Digital rests with the company's super-fast alpha chip, a component that will allow Digital's machines to run all sorts of software, not just software written specifically for Digital computers. THREE IN RUNNING FOR JOB: Digital followers expect one of three people to become Palmer's top technologies executive: William Demmer, in charge of the alpha chip; David Stone, vice president of software engineering; or Russ Gullotti, in charge of systems integration. Palmer gave no hint of when Digital will return to profitability. Some analysts think that will happen in the third quarter ending March 30. (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