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NEWS BRIEFS
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The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is taking a harder look at Intel Corp.'s [INTC] intention to buy Chips and Technologies Inc. [CHPS] and has made a request for additional information from the graphics chip company under the Hart-Scott-Rodino act. In other Intel news, the company is expected to release a new Pentium processor with MMX technology for mobile computers. Code-named Tillamook, the chip will be available in 200 MHz and 233 MHz versions. A 266 MHz version, as well as Pentium II processors for notebooks, are also in the works.
Toshiba Corp. has started shipping a DVD-ROM drive designed for notebook PCs and plans to manufacture two DVD-RAM drives. The DVD-ROM drive (model SD-C2002) transfers data at 2x speed, is 17 mm high and will be available for about $500 this month. A SCSI DVD-RAM drive (model SD-W1001) will sample in September and ship in December. An ATAPI DVD-RAM drive (model SD-W1002) will sample in November and ship in January, 1998. Both DVD-RAM drives will cost $750. Toshiba also is working on a super-slim DVD-ROM drive that is 12.7 mm high. A next-generation DVD-RAM drive capable of storing 4.7 GB of data on each side is in development and expected to ship in fiscal 1999. (Toshiba, 714/583-3000.)
STB Systems Inc. [STBI] has gained design wins for its Velocity 128 AGP multimedia accelerator with Dell Computer Corp. [DELL] and Gateway 2000 Inc. [GATE] Dell will incorporate the card, which is based on NVIDIA Corp.'s Riva 128, into its Dimension line, and Gateway is using the board in models G-266 and G-300XL multimedia systems. (STB, 972/234-8750.)
Putting additional pressure on clone makers, Apple Computer Inc. has discontinued the practice of offering software upgrades to users who buy clones. The company is in discussions with clone manufacturers regarding licensing of the latest version of the Mac OS. Apple executives said they might continue to offer OS upgrades to clone buyers when they reach some kind of agreement with clone vendors. (Apple, 408/996-1010.)
Allen Communications plans a major upgrade to its Quest authoring tool next spring, Britta Glade, Allen's director of marketing, told our sister publication Multimedia Monitor. The upgrade could come as early as March. The upgrade will be a native 32-bit program with Active X support enabling users to run Quest via icons in Windows 95 programs. The upgrade will also give Quest users the capability to output Net-capable files that can operate independently or through a browser. Pricing is yet to be determined, but the current version, Quest Net +, sells for $2,495. (Allen Communications, 801/537-7800.)
ESS Technology Inc. [ESST] and Innovacom Inc. [MPEG] are co-developing MPEG-2 encoding and decoding products for use in DVD authoring systems and set-top boxes. Scheduled to ship in the fourth quarter, the products will use ESS' MPEG-2 chips and Innovacom's DV2100/2110 encoder boards. (ESS, 510/226-1088; Innovacom, 408/727-2447.)
3Dfx Interactive has inked a distribution deal with German PC manufacturer miroMEDIAto help proliferate the chip maker's Voodoo Graphics accelerator card in Europe. miroMEDIA will sell the product under the brand miroHISCORE 3D. miroMEDIA debuted the product last week in Berlin at the Internationale Funkausstellung trade show. (3Dfx, 408/935-4400.)
Walter Amaral has joined S3 Inc. [SIII] as CFO and senior vice president. Amaral held the same positions at NetManage Inc. before joining the chip company. He fills a void left by George Hervey, who resigned from S3 last March to work at start-up Galileo Technology.
Former Apple Computer Inc. [AAPL] executive Robert Kondrk has joined Headland Digital Media Inc. as vice president of the education and commerce division. Headland is the recently formed digital publishing unit of Pearson plc. |
