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 Fri, May 15 1992 Date: Fri, 15 May 92 05:12:19 EDT Message-ID: 05-15 0000 DECISIONLINE: Technology USA TODAY Update May 15-17, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network MICROPROCESSOR WAR IS BREWING: There's a nasty microprocessor price-war raging. Intel, with 60% of the $3 billion-a-year industry, no longer has a monopoly on the chip it developed for the IBM PC and millions of so-called clone machines - non-IBM PCs that run IBM software. Four other chip companies - Advanced Micro Devices, Chips & Technologies, Cyrix and Texas Instruments - have found ways to build similar chips. (For more, see special Chip package below.) INTELSAT 603 MOVING INTO PLACE: The INTELSAT 603 satellites' replacement booster motor, attached last night by the crew of the NASA space shuttle Endeavour, has fired successfully, sending the satellite into a super-synchronous transfer orbit. The 603 will arrive at its testing location in geosynchronous orbit over the Atlantic Ocean in about six days. COMPUTER'S ENERGY USE TARGETED: The computer equipment industry and the Environmental Protection Agency this week agreed to work to improve the energy efficiency of computer products through a voluntary Energy Star Computer Program. The agreement by the agency and representatives of the Computer and Business Equipment Manufacturers Association will lead next to a detailed technical memo on standards. VIDEOPHONE SELLING WELL: AT&T says it has been "overwhelmed" with interest in its VideoPhone 2500, unveiled in January, and says it probably will take at least two months before it can fill the orders it has received. Stephen Clemente, VideoPhone's general manager, says AT&T received 10,000 orders the day the system was unveiled and several hundred a week since. EXPANSION BOARD OFFERED: Acculogic Inc. is offering a family of memory expansion board for IBM PS:2 users. It can expand memory up to 32 megabytes for use in DOS 5, Windows 3, OS:2, NetWare, Unix and Xenix file server applications. SIMMply-RAM has list price of $319. ILLINOIS BILL PASSES: A bill that revamps the state regulation of the phone industry in Illinois was signed by Gov. Jim Edgar Thursday. It mandates a three-year ban on increases in the price of basic services but lets companies offer new services. Supporters says it will bring the latest information age technology to the state without raising phone rates. Opponents says it will lead to massive rate increases. NOISE CANCELLATION GAINS PATENT: Noise Cancellation Technologies Inc. has been awarded a patent for its Digital Virtual Earth technology, an alternative, lower-cost way to reduce unwanted noise and vibration electronically. DVE eliminates the need for a reference signal, which is used as a timing device to effectively couple the offending noise with an opposite sound wave or "anti-noise." TRANSTECH CONFERENCE ANNOUNCED: U.S. Secretary of Transportation Andrew H. Card Jr., addressing the National Technology Initiative Conference at the University of Washington, Thursday announced that Seattle will be the site of the Pacific Rim TransTech (transportation technology) Conference in the summer of 1993. It will be sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration and Washington's Department of Transportation. COMSAT LABS CELEBRATES 25 YEARS: COMSAT Laboratories, a business unit of Washington-based COMSAT Corp., will celebrate its 25th anniversary Friday. The laboratories were founded May 1, 1967. They have has played a crucial role in the development of satellite communications and continue to spearhead research critical to creating competitive satellite systems for the future marketplace. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON CHIP: AMD'S STOCK FALLS: Advanced Micro Devices saw its shares tumble 1 7:8 to 15 5:8 Thursday, in reaction to Intel's Wednesday announcement that it was slashing prices on its next generation 486 chip. Analysts fear AMD, which gets roughly 40% of revenue from sales of its own 386 chip, will have to cut prices, drying up much-needed funds for research and development. TI JOINS MICROPROCESSOR MARKET: Texas Instruments announced its entry into the microprocessor market Thursday, using designs developed by Cyrix. It didn't say what it would charge for the chip when it's available late this year. However, investors worry that a company the size of Texas Instruments poses more of the threat to Intel than any other microprocessor maker, including AMD. CUTS MAY NOT HURT COMPETITORS: Some analysts say Intel's price cuts won't hurt AMD as much as feared. Intel cut list prices on the 486 from $282 to $119, but Drew Peck, semiconductor analyst at Donaldson Lufkin Jenrette, says Intel distributors have been selling it for as low as $97. Peck says Intel's 486sx, 20 megahertz chip, despite being a next generation product, isn't as fast as AMD's 386 component. CONSUMERS COULD BENEFIT: Computer makers and users stand to benefit from lower chip prices. Many analysts say the PC chip market, like the PC market, is fast becoming a commodity business that should be avoided. As to AMD and Intel, says Bear Stearns Andy Neff: "I'm not recommending either one." (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