Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : COMS & the Ghost of USRX w/ other STUFF -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: David Lawrence who wrote (14032)	3/19/1998 10:18:00 PM
From: Moonray	Respond to of 22053

Intel puts PC industry on notice at CeBIT fair Thursday March 19, 9:04 pm Eastern Time HANOVER, Germany, March 19 (Reuters) - Intel Corp (INTC - news) on Thursday put the PC world on notice that its dizzying gains are not about to slow down anytime soon -- even for home computers priced under $1,000. At the CeBIT trade fair, Intel demonstrated a PC with a Pentium II running at 700 megahertz -- more than twice the rate of today's speed king, a 333 megahertz model. The company said such leaps in processing power would help spark a boom in the Internet and increase the global PC population to more than one billion in the next few years from 200 million today. ''I can easily see it hitting one billion in five years,'' Intel senior vice president Albert Yu told Reuters. ''It is going to be a very different world.'' Elsewhere at the sprawling trade fair, Germany's new telephone companies raised the pressure on rival Deutsche Telekom (DTEG.F),unveiling price cuts and new services, while moving to shake up Germany's cosy Internet industry, offering access services that are driving down prices for using the global computer network. Industrial giant Siemens AG (OTC BB:SMAWY - news; SIEG.F) also reported strong growth in foreign business at its key computer and communications units, but said the domestic market remains sluggish. But Intel was showing no signs of expecting sluggish growth. In its demonstration, the company used a PC to show an animated underwater scene that undulated with the current of the sea. As Yu moved the computer's mouse, it instantly wheeled the perspective of the animation skyward into a sun beaming into the depths and downward where submarines drifted by -- all with in a warping, watery image. ''You usually need a very powerful graphics workstation to do that,'' Yu said. After the demonstration, a second programme that measures processor speed showed the Pentium II was running at 702 megahertz. At that speed, a Pentium II PC would have the performance of what was the world's fastest supercomputer only a few years ago. Such massive processing power would enable PCs without extra equipment to talk to users and respond to spoken commands, said Gert Huegler, president of Vobis Microcomputer AG, one of Germany's top PC suppliers. ''That means many more people will use PCs. The ease of use border will fall,'' he said. Hans-Juergen Mammitzsch, head of Dell Computer Corp's (DELL - news) German unit, said the coming gains in processing power would also boost Internet commerce. ''There will be huge opportunities when home PCs can run full- motion video off the Internet, and the Internet becomes truly multimedia,'' he said. Intel, the world's dominant chip maker with about 85 percent of the market, said 700 megahertz chips should hit the market in the next few years. ''This is still a technology demonstration, but that is where we are going,'' spokesman Michael Sullivan said. And it has even faster chips in the works. Yu, in a news conference, also showed a simulation of the Merced processor, which is due next year and should run at even higher speeds. Sullivan would not say how fast Merced chips would run, but he said they will be made on a more advanced process than Pentium II. ''Past history is that a new process gets you more speed,'' Sullivan said. While working on high-end chips, Intel has also developed new processors for home PCs. Next month it will launch a new Celeron brand that will hit 300 megahertz later this year and appear in PCs priced from $800 to $1,200, Yu said. Other important trends at the fair were seen in telecommunications, where liberalisation of European markets has been driving down prices in Germany. Telekom's leading competitor, Mannesmann (MMWG.F) announced price cuts at both its fixed-wire network Mannesmann Arcor and its mobile phone group Mannesmann Mobilfunk. Arcor said it would cut prices on some calls by up to 30 percent, while Mobilfunk unveiled a Favourite Number rate, giving 10 percent off all calls to a selected number. Deutsche Telekom recently gained regulatory approval for price cuts of more than 40 percent in some areas. Meanwhile, Siemens was seeing solid growth in sales of telecommunications equipment to phone companies. Its public communications unit saw five-month sales rise 30 percent to 6.5 billion marks, although domestic sales were down 15 percent. Computer group Siemens Nixdorf said its foreign business had been the main engine as European sales outside of Germany grew eight percent in the first five months. o~~~ O

To: David Lawrence who wrote (14032)	3/19/1998 11:43:00 PM
From: Moonray	Respond to of 22053

Paint seller says men must have notes from wives Thursday March 19 4:51 PM EST LONDON (Reuters) - A shopkeeper has decreed he will only sell paint to husbands if they bring a signed note from their wives, saying he's fed up with men coming back to the store to change paint because their wives hate the color they bought. "We will not supply husbands with colored paint without a signed note from their wives," says the new sign Allan Gordon has posted beside the paint mixing machine in his shop in Alford, Scotland. "We have had to change a lot of paint for people in the past," Gordon told The Daily Mail. Since he put the notice up, "men are thinking a bit harder about what they buy." o~~~ O