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, Oct 13 1992 Date: Tue, 13 Oct 92 05:19:04 EDT Message-ID: 10-13 0000 DECISIONLINE: Technology USA TODAY Update Oct. 13, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network MICROSOFT TO TRANSLATE PROGRAMS: Microsoft Corp. said Tuesday it will become the first software company to open wholly-owned subsidiaries in four Eastern European nations. Four of Microsoft's best-selling programs will be translated into local languages for sales through these new units by the second quarter of 1993, the company said. The local-language versions will be in Russian, Czech, Polish and Hungarian. OFFICES WILL OPEN IN 1993: Microsoft said it will open new offices in Moscow, Prague, and Warsaw by the end of the year, and an office in Budapest will be open by the spring of 1993. The offices, staffed by local nationals, will report to Microsoft's Eastern European Division in Germany. Microsoft will develop localized versions of Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Works, Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. AMDAHL TO CUT 900 WORKERS: Amdahl said Monday it will cut its workforce by 900 people or 9% because of a drop in demand for its mainframe computers. Amdahl has 9,700 workers worldwide, including 5,700 in California. About 600 jobs in California will be affected. The cuts reflect the pressure on high-tech companies which are facing weak demand, a shift away from mainframe computers and fierce price competition. GATES IS IN UNIQUE POSITION: Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, may be unique in U.S. history. Never has someone created so much wealth so young, even adjusted for inflation. Forbes magazine says Gates is worth $6.3 billion. And he is only 36. John D. Rockefeller and Howard Hughes didn't become that rich until middle age. And they didn't have time to get hugely wealthy and then become something else. (For more, see special Gates package below.) NEW COMPUTER SYSTEM UNVEILED: Convex Computer Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. Monday unveiled a computer network that links workstations with a mini-supercomputer. The two companies will sell a network of Hewlett-Packard workstations with a Convex mini-supercomputer and software. At a starting cost of $500,000, the system is designed to compete with supercomputers costing $5 million, the companies said. SYSTEM HANDLES COMPLEX PROBLEMS: A computer network that links workstations with a mini-supercomputer is the first joint product from Convex Computer Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. since Hewlett-Packard bought a 5% equity stake in Convex in March. Linking workstations with mini-supercomputers allows users to tackle complex problems that require heavy number crunching. INTEL IS WINNING COMPUTER WAR: Fierce price wars may be killing the profits of many personal computer manufacturers. But cut-rate prices triggered a big jump in PC sales and a windfall for companies such as Intel Corp., Bloomberg Business News reports. Intel makes microprocessors, which it supplies to several PC makers that copy the IBM system. Other firms that make microprocessors, such as Motorola, are also benefiting. MOTOROLA'S INCOME IS UP: Motorola Inc. said Monday it had third-quarter net income of $129 million, up from $93 million in the same period a year ago. Sales rose to $3.40 billion from $2.75 billion. For the nine months ended Oct. 3, Motorola had earnings of $402 million up from $328 million a year earlier. KUWAIT TO BUY U.S. TANKS: A decision by Kuwait to select the Abrams M1-A2 tank could eventually be worth about $1.28 billion to General Dynamics Corp. The Kuwait government said Monday it wants to buy the U.S.-made tanks, but a contract hasn't been negotiated, said a spokesman for General Dynamics' land systems division. SOFTWORLD '93 IS SCHEDULED: Softworld '93, a software developer's conference and trading forum, will be held in Vancouver, Canada from Sept. 13-15, 1993. The conference keynote address will be given by Mike Maples, Microsoft's executive vice president of worldwide products. It will showcase the latest software technology from developers throughout Canada and the Pacific Northwest of the USA. TELEBIT INTRODUCES NETBLAZER: Telebit Corp. Monday introduced what it says is the first multi-port dial-up routing solution for Novell NetWare networks. The NetBlazer allows network administrators to extend their corporate Ethernet and Token Ring networks to remote offices and telecommuters using the public switched telephone network. Prices begin at $2,399. DIGITAL, POWERCORE MAKE DEAL: Digital Equipment Corp. and Powercore Inc. said Monday they have signed an agreement for Digital to integrate a Powercore software package into its family of applications packages for computer networks. Digital and Powercore will jointly develop and market Powercore's Network Scheduler 3 for Digital's TeamLinks product line. It will be available early next year. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON GATES: MICROSOFT FOUNDED IN 1979: Bill Gates and pal Paul Allen started Microsoft in 1979. The company has developed some of the computer industry's most important personal-computer software. Gates' wealth is in Microsoft stock - he owns 36% of its common shares. Gates today is a self-absorbed, single, childless man who in many ways is still a kid himself. GATES CONCENTRATES ON FIRM: Gates, 36, has only one true passion: Microsoft. "The focus of my life is my work," he says. Gates' youthfulness leaves the future wide open. At the extremes are two cartoonish images. Maybe, by the time he's 70 - in 2026 - a never-married, gray-haired Gates will be wearing giant computer-chip-driven glasses and a Wal-Mart striped T-shirt. GATES COULD LEAVE MICROSOFT: Perhaps Gates will become the man every schoolkid admires. He'll have set Microsoft loose to grow and prosper for generations while he races around the country financing housing for the poor, schools for the middle class, manned flights to Pluto and 3-D Hollywood movies. The first of his four kids will be a U.S. senator. (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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