Conference ricks::dechips

    re .11
    (Apple restructuring/layoff news in various finance press today)
    According to Apple's CEO Amelio, after three years of continuing
    losses, the Newton division may be sold off, saying "We may have
    missed the boat on that one".
    
    This, of course, will lead to the inevitable headline:
    "Apple to drop Newton"...
    K

> "Apple to drop Newton"

And to think I saw Ridicule two days ago.
AAaaaaargh.

    +          ORACLE TO PUSH INTEL-BASED NCS THE HARDEST
    
    In what looks like characteristic impulsiveness on Oracle Corp
    CEO Larry Ellison's part, the computer industry's most eligible
    bachelor decided last Tuesday he was going to give a sneak
    preview of the Oracle network computer software running on an
    Intel-based machine Oracle itself cobbled together from PC
    hardware. He showed the device and software at the Millennium
    Conference in San Francisco. It included the HatTrick
    presentation software, InterOffice groupware, a Java word
    processor and a Nestcape browser. Ominously for Advanced RISC
    Machines Ltd, that makes the ARM processor which the original
    Oracle NCs were to based on, Network Computer Inc (NCI), the
    Oracle subsidiary said the main push into the corporate space
    will be with Intel-based machines, not RISC. And as the
    corporate market is the only one Oracle and its manufacturing
    partners are really interested in for the time being. Oracle
    and those building the NCs are due to reveal their hands in
    Japan on April 15. Ellison apparently went off on a quasi
    -religious tangent about the internet being "the common
    heritage of all mankind" and it being "Micorosft versus mankind
    with Microsoft having only a slight lead." The software
    includes the NC System Software, NC Server and the NC Card
    software. Ellison apparently demonstrated the Intel machine the
    previous week to The Research Board, a gathering of around 50
    chief information officers from the world's largest companies.
    The last person the group deigned to allow to talk to them was
    Steve Jobs back in 1984 with the first Macintosh.

Digital Oracle and Strongarm.... (Mercury mail)
    
    
* DIGITAL EQPMT. CORP and Network Computer Inc., a subsidiary of
  ORACLE CORP, announced the DIGITAL Network Appliance Reference
  Design. Based on Digital's powerful StrongARM microprocessor,
  the reference design is aimed at creating a standard for the
  most powerful, low-cost network computing platform. The
  reference design is flexible and will support multiple software
  environments. (PR Newswire 09:02 AM ET 03/24/97) For the full
  text story, see
  http://www.merc.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2081498-ff5 

+          NETWORK COMPUTER BACKS DEC'S STRONGARM RISC 

Oracle Corp's Network Computer Inc subsidiary is sufficiently 
impressed with Digital Equipment Corp's StrongARM supercharged 
version of the Advanced RISC Machines Ltd ARM RISC that it has 
joined forces with DEC's Digital Semiconductor arm to create 
the Digital Network Appliance Reference Design. The design is 
intended to create a standard for the most powerful low-cost 
Network Computer, but the development could not have been too 
taxing because the NC Access Network Computing software 
environment is already up on the standard, relatively low-speed 
ARM chips. Documentation for the design will be available free 
to all manufacturers later this month and reference unit 
samples will be available next month with significant 
quantities later this spring. There are only two takers so far, 
Funai Electric Co Ltd of Osaka, and Aranex Inc of Bedford, 
Massachusetts, both of which are committed to building Network 
Computers to the new reference design. Aranex reckons to be 
building the first Network Computer for business users, the 
Internet Client Station.

    from computergram:
    
    +            COREL PUSHES BACK VIDEO-NC BETA RELEASE
    
    Corel Corp and HDS Network Systems Inc may be having some
    problems with the MPC 821 PowerPC chip they planned to use in
    Corel's upcoming Video-NC. The V-NC was supposed to hit beta
    this month but it's been pushed back a few weeks to mid-April.
    Rumor has it the beta might not use the Motorola chip after
    all. Corel is officially saying the first V-NC rev will use
    Motorola's chip and that it's looking for a more powerful chip
    such as Digital Equipment Corp's StrongARM to put in the second
    revision. Meanwhile, Corel's Office for Java is set to launch
    May 28.

    re .19  and the buyer?
    
    FWIW, latest rumor (mentioned on CNBC)...
    Apple sells Newton to Sun Microsystems.