Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!enterpoop.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 16 1992 Date: Fri, 16 Oct 92 04:43:26 EDT Message-ID: Lines: 244 10-15 0000 DECISIONLINE: Technology USA TODAY Update Oct. 15, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network TEXAS INSTRUMENTS WINS AWARD: Many saw the work of Texas Instruments' Defense Systems & Electronics Group when they watched videos of smart bombs zoom into buildings' air ducts and windows in the Persian Gulf war. The Texas Instruments' group, which won a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Wednesday, makes the electronics that guide those bombs and other electronic weapons. (For more, see special Baldrige package below.) TELXON CEO RESIGNS: Raymond Meyo, CEO of Telxon Corp., resigned Wednesday, less than a week after the maker of hand-held computer systems said its fiscal 1993 earnings will be about 16% below the company's own forecast. Meyo will provide consulting services to the company for sales, the firm said. CHIP WILL BE ENERGY-EFFICIENT: Intel Corp. is designing a chip that would help personal computers use less energy. Desktop PCs now use 120 watts to 200 watts of electricity while on, even if not in use. Intel's chips - the brains of a computer - will switch PCs into a 30-watt "sleep" mode when on but not being used. 486 CHIPS ARE ON WAY: Intel Corp., the largest independent computer chip maker in the U.S., expects to ship about 5 million 486 chips by the end of the year, Intel spokesman Gordon Casey said Wednesday. Casey also said the company will ship its P-5 microprocessor by the first quarter of 1993. Engineering samples of the P-5 chips have been sent to personal computer companies. DIGITAL OPTIMISTIC DESPITE LOSS: Digital Equipment Corp. said Wednesday it lost $261 million its latest quarter but expressed optimism that a major restructuring should boost results the next quarter. The loss was the fourth quarterly operating deficit for DEC. CEO Robert Palmer is stepping up the company's restructuring, which includes a plan to trim its workforce by 25,000 the next few years to 88,000 worldwide. AT&T, NEC TEAM UP: AT&T Microelectronics and NEC Corp. Wednesday announced they have formed a joint venture to market semiconductors bearing the AT&T brand name in Japan. The new company, named AT&T Semiconductor Marketing, Ltd., is capitalized $1.7 million, AT&T said. AT&T owns 51% of the venture and NEC owns 49%. The deal will allow AT&T to sell its semiconductors through NEC's existing sales channels. INTERNATIONAL MOBILE TO MERGE: International Mobile Machines is expected to announce Thursday morning that it acquired SCS Mobilecom Inc. and SCS Telecom Inc., Bloomberg Business News reports. The announcement will bring two competing digital cellular technologies together. International Mobile develops time division multiple access technology, while SCS develops broadband code division multiple access technology. USF&G TEAMS UP WITH CIGNA: USF&G has selected CIGNA Information Services Inc. for a strategic alliance in personal lines processing. The multimillion-dollar nine-year agreeent has CIS providing policy processing, management reporting and information services to the USF&G organization and automated policy service support to USF&G agents. CIS will provide software and computer mainframe support. FIRM RECEIVES FCC LICENSE: Pacific Communication Sciences Inc. of San Diego said Wednesday it received a license from the Federal Communications Commission to perform experiments in the 1895 MHz-1918 MHz frequency band. The firm says it will use the band to develop products and technology for personal communications systems. Pacific Communications says the products will be available in late 1993. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON BALDRIGE: UNIT HAS BEEN STEADY: Texas Instruments' process of designing, making and servicing of smart bombs is so good, the firm's Defense Systems & Electronics Group was awarded a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. The program has helped keep the unit's revenue steady - around $2 billion a year - while the Pentagon has severely cut spending, says President William "Hank" Hayes. UNIT FOLLOWS GUIDELINES: The Texas Instruments' unit first became interested in the Baldrige in 1988. "We started looking to see if it would be a good road map for us to follow," Hayes said. "We thought it was an excellent road map." The group applied in 1990 and 1991 and learned a great deal from each attempt. EMPLOYEE TEAMS ARE USED: An important part of the process was pushing decisions down to employee teams. The unit now has five management layers, down from eight in 1990. A pilot program of four teams in 1983 has grown to more than 1,900 teams today. The group is on target to have half its 15,000 employees working in unsupervised teams by 1995. CUSTOMERS ARE PLEASED: The internal changes have made customers happy, too. A Navy study designated 106 processes and techniques used by the unit as "best manufacturing practices." No other Navy supplier got that many high ratings. Another Navy study of 17 missiles found the HARM and Shrike missiles to be the most reliable. Both missiles are made by the unit. (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. 08:0010150000D1015 TELE- 08:0010160000D1016 TECH- R F IBM-is-getting-smaller................ A D1016 10-16 0000 DECISIONLINE: Technology USA TODAY Update Oct. 16-18, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network IBM IS GETTING SMALLER: IBM, the USA's largest computer maker, keeps on getting smaller and smaller. After issuing dismal third-quarter results Thursday, IBM has slashed its manufacturing capacity 40% since 1989. "It's a car crash in slow motion that's going to last for two to three more years," says George Colony, an IBM analyst at Forrester Research. "There's no good news coming from this company." (For more, see special IBM package below.) CRAY RESEARCH TO CUT 650 JOBS: Cray Research Inc. said Thursday it will eliminate 650 jobs. The layoffs involve both regular and contract positions. Most of the reductions will occur at the company's Wisconsin and Minnesota offices. The company said it also will freeze wages companywide for 1993, eliminate bonuses for executive officers this year and reduce inventories by at least 30% in 1993. APPLE'S EARNINGS ARE UP: Apple Computer Thursday reported record earnings its latest quarter, boosted by strong sales of its PowerBook notebook computers. For the quarter ended Sept. 25, net income jumped 20% to $98 million a share from $81 million a year earlier. Chairman John Sculley says Apple expects to announce more new products the next six months than any previous year in its history. SEGA TO UNVEIL CD ACCESSORY: Sega, Nintendo's main video game rival, has moved the battle to a new front - compact discs. The second-largest game maker unveiled its $299 CD accessory to the Genesis system (which sells for as low as $99) Thursday. The Sega CD should be in stores within three weeks. CDs, which are cheaper to manufacture and have more memory than cartridges, are considered the future of home video games. SEGA ISN'T FIRST WITH CD GAMES: The Sega CD set, due in store within three weeks, comes with six games on three discs, a music sampler CD (the accessory can play standard audio CDs) and a CD-plus-graphics sampler. Sega isn't the first game maker to discover CDs. A CD accessory has been available since 1989 for the TurboGrafx-16 system, a distant third in the U.S. market, and an updated system is due later this year. MICROSOFT UPGRADES MAC SOFTWARE: Microsoft Corp. Thursday introduced an upgrade for Microsoft Word version 5.1 for the Macintosh. It includes a new customizable tool bar designed to give users easier access to the tools and functions they use every day, Microsoft says. An upgrade from Word 5.0 costs $14.95 and an upgrade from version 4.0 and earlier costs $129. GENICOM SIGNS DEAL: Genicom Corp. said Thursday it signed a manufacturing and joint development agreement with Tokyo Electric Co. Under the five-year pact, the two companies will develop certain impact and non-impact printers, original equipment manufacturers' products and various services. Genicom said the agreement will enable it to reduce impact printer manufacturing costs while expanding the line. LINKON MAKES DEAL WITH AT&T: Linkon Corp., a manufacturer of hardware and software for the communications processing industry, Thursday said that it has entered into an agreement with AT&T's Network Systems Division. Under the agreement, Linkon Corp.'s full range of technology will be incorporated into AT&T products for internal and external sales domestically and internationally. QUALCOMM FORMS NEW GROUP: Qualcomm Inc. said Thursday it has formed its first Personal Communications Services Group. Robert L. Warren will lead the new group that will attempt to create new business opportunities and strategic alliances in emerging PCS markets. Initial efforts will focus on conducting field trials utilizing Qualcomm's Code Division Multiple Access digital cellular technology. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON IBM: EUROPEAN SALES ARE DOWN: Many of IBM's current problems stem from the economic slowdown in Europe, where the computer giant gets almost half its sales. Even so, IBM is seeing demand shrink across many of its product lines. That's caused by both leaps in technology and bad management, analysts say. Technology advances alone don't explain what has happened to IBM. MAIN FRAMES AREN'T SELLING: In a down economy, IBM's biggest problem has been selling big-ticket items like the room-sized computers which account for half IBM's annual revenue and 60% of its profits. IBM sold more than 2,000 mainframes worldwide in 1989; last year it sold just 1,077, a 47% drop. Yet the company's factories were geared to churn out many more of the $5 million to $20 million machines. MID-RANGE COMPUTERS ARE SELLING: One of IBM's best-sellers is the smaller computer line that runs automatic teller networks and department store cash registers. IBM will sell 58,000 of its AS:400 mid-range computer this year, a 12% jump from 1991. There's a catch. About 5% of the AS:400s sold this year will replace IBM mainframe computers. Slowly but surely, the IBM mainframe is becoming extinct. IBM IS LOSING PC SHARE: IBM is still the largest maker of personal computers, accounting for almost 30% of the market for PCs shipped last year. But it has has been losing business to hundreds of lower-cost competitors. IBM recently announced it was forming a separate PC division to make it more competitive. But analysts question whether IBM will ever be competitive enough to keep its PC business growing. (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