NEWS MARKET WATCH Jetking Franchises Hardware Training

Jetking plans to franchise its Hardware Education

Institutes in Delhi and is using a computerized selection procedure. The Institutes will

provide training in repair and maintenance for PCs, LANs, notebooks and UNIX and e-mail.

PRT In India

Platform Re-engineering Technologies (PRT), USA, plans to

set up an Indian subsidiary as a one-stop shop for clients worldwide. Incorporated in

1989, PRT specializes in providing technological vision and direction to clients on

emerging technologies, besides offering turnkey solutions and a range of technical

services. The Indian subsidiary will develop software for Indian and foreign clients, and

act as a recruitment agent for a Barbados subsidiary, Total Technology Solutions.

Computer Education In The

Next Decade

The National Convention Of Computer Educators And Trainers

(NCCET), 20-21 April 1996, at Patna, focused on Computer Education For All: Preparing For

The Next Decade 2000-2010. The NCCET raised management and administrative matters relating

to human resource development in computer literacy and also discussed sub-themes such as

the status of computer education, computer literacy for policy makers, and training

computer educators. A draft national IT curricula was prepared by a committee of

scientists, academicians, professors, teachers and trainers.

PCs Access Mainframes

With Eicon''s Aviva

Eicon’s Aviva Mainframe Edition, a 3270 display and

printer emulation program, is a desktop-to-mainframe connectivity solution to allow

Windows NT and Windows 95 users to access mainframe-based apps using 3D View, Tour Guide,

Portfolio and OpView. These use Eicon''s Desktop Data Link Switching to consolidate LAN,

WAN and SNA traffic over a TCP/IP backbone. The Aviva Mainframe Edition has been available

since March 1996 and the Aviva Mainframe 5250 will be available from the third quarter of

1996.

P-Rating To Benchmark 6x86

Chips

yrix, SGS-Thomson, IBM and AMD have developed a processor

performance indicator known as the P-rating, based on the Ziff-Davis Winstone 96, and will

be used to test 6x86 chips at MDR Labs. Cyrix''s 6x86 chip has already been tested, as has

SGS-Thomson''s ST6x86 and both delivered better performance than the Pentium. Cyrix 6x86

processors are in volume production now and ST6x86 evaluation copies were available in

end-March.

TGK India And T-Net Alliance

GK India, an Indo-Japanese joint venture, and T-Net,

networking solution providers, will market Internet services. TGK India will act as a

strategic business associate and national systems integrator. TGK will provide Internet

solutions such as installation, user-specific training and consultancy with the necessary

hardware and software. It will also provide datacom products from Shiva Corporation and

Plaintree Systems, as well as Silicon Graphics computer systems.

Multimedia Accelerator

Supports Microsoft''s Direct 3D

GS-Thomson''s ST2000 supports Microsoft''s new Windows 95

Direct 3D API standard. This allows creating an industry-standard method for implementing

multimedia functions across all Windows 95 apps. The ST2000 is the result of an alliance

between SGS-Thomson and NVidia Corp which specializes in advanced PC graphics technology.

NASA’s Earth-Monitoring

Database

NASA has chosen Illustra Information Technologies, a recent

acquisition by Informix, to develop the imaging and spatial portions of NASA’s earth

monitoring database system. This will provide environmental scientists with a constantly

changing view of the earth and its atmosphere.

Tulip''s Price Cuts

Tulip India Ltd has reduced prices from five to 21 percent

on the entire range of its products. It has also reduced prices on 10 PC models introduced

recently. Competitors including TISL (eight to 10 percent) and Apple (nearly 30 percent)

have followed suit. Compaq and Digital have announced no price cuts, but plan heavy

discounting.

Apple, Netscape And SGI

Cooperate On Net Graphics

Apple Computer, Netscape Communications and Silicon

Graphics announced Apple''s support for the Moving Worlds VRML 2.0 proposal and Apple''s

contribution of its 3D metafile format (3DMF) for developing a new binary file format for

Moving Worlds. This is an open, cross-platform specification for dynamic 3D environments

on the Internet. 3DMF will enable higher compression, file streaming and faster parsing of

3D objects and virtual worlds. The proposal has been submitted to the VRML Architecture

Group.

Lasers From Modi Xerox

Modi Xerox has introduced the MX6300 and the MX6600 laser

printers. The MX6300, targeted at small offices, is a monochrome printer with a straight

paper path to prevent paper jams. Users can choose various media styles, paper sizes and

weights. It comes with a Windows 3.1 driver, a remote printer console to make changing

printer settings easy and is compatible with PCs and Macs. The MX6600, is a professional

office printer whose data compression technology allows complex graphics to be printed

within the standard memory available. It also has PostScript (optional) for documents with

multiple typefaces and symbol sets.

Anderson Appointed Apple

Chief Financial Officer

Fred F Anderson, Jr, has been appointed Executive Vice

President and Chief Financial Officer of Apple Computers from 1st April. Anderson, who

replaces Joseph A Graziano, will oversee finances, investor relations, tax, information

systems and corporate development and will report to Apple Chairman and CEO, Dr Gilbert

Amelio.

Unicorp To Sell Apple

Products

Unicorp Industries Ltd has been appointed an Apple

authorized distributor for the full range of Apple products. It plans to focus on the

government and corporate sector.

Cisco Systems'' Strategy For

Enterprise Networks

Cisco Systems'' CiscoBlue is aimed at customers with

networks using IBM’s System Network Architecture (SNA). The CiscoBlue strategy

outlines how SNA users can build networks using routers and LAN and ATM switches,

facilitate integrating SNA and other protocols and enable high-speed access to mainframes.

CiscoBlue will also allow customers to consolidate SNA and non-SNA data and provide

traffic consolidation throughout the network from data centers to branch offices. Cisco

will also provide Token Ring switching products to complement its existing product range.

Business India’s Tenth

Local Node

Business India Information Technology’s aXcess is now

available through a local call in Pune. Till last year, this service was restricted to

branch offices in the metros and users in other parts of India logged into INET to get to

the nearest aXcess node. Business India has therefore decided to extend this service to

emerging centers of commerce and industry. aXcess'' large subscriber base in Pune also

precipitated the demand for a local node.

3Digital’s New

Alpha 21164 Chip

Digital Equipment Corp''s new Alpha 21164 chip is

manufactured in Digital Semiconductor’s 0.35 micron CMOS process that yields high

clock speeds and performance, a small die size and substantially lower power dissipation

(20 watts). The Alpha 21164''s strong floating point performance is important in the market

for multimedia apps. The new Alpha chip is available at two clock speeds--336MHz and

400MHz. Alpha is the leading RISC architecture for the Windows market, with more than

1,500 ported, native-mode Windows NT apps. With the release of the Digital FX!32

translation-emulation software, Alpha microprocessors will run all 32-bit Windows apps at

up to 70% of native Alpha speeds.

Matrox Implements

"Quartz" Architecture In DigiSuite

Matrox Electronic Systems Ltd''s DigiSuite, a set of digital

video products, will feature software development tools based on Microsoft’s new

multimedia architecture, codenamed “Quartz”. Quartz is a specific multimedia

implementation of the COM architecture used in Microsoft’s OLE. It features an

improved audio-video file format first proposed by the OpenDML consortium. A new data

streaming architecture, a consistent API for driver models and identical APIs for Windows

95 and Windows NT helps it overcome the limitations of Video For Windows (VFW).

DigiSuite is a family of digital video boards and Win32

software development tools for video apps such as nonlinear editing systems, digital disk

recorders, broadcast media servers, live video switchers, M-JPEG to MPEG transcoders,

commercial insertion systems, CATV barker channels, CG/paint/animation workstations and

visual effects/compositing systems. Its components include DigiMix, a digital

video/graphics mixer; DigiMotion, a digital audio mixer; DigiVid, a multi-channel analog

video I/O board; QMPEG-2, a four-channel MPEG-2 decoder; and Marvel Millenium, a

video-in-a-window console.