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States that for the personal computer to mature, the computer industry need to consider what innovations are needed to craft reliable systems. Top design imperative for the PC; Processor speeds; How some computer companies handle the quality issue of PCs; U.S. Department of Justice's scrutiny over some PC industries for antitrust activities.

Discusses the problems of Java computer language of Sun Microsystems Incorporated. Companies experiencing difficulty using the Java language; Michael Carrieri of Boundless Technologies Inc.'s views on Java technology; Most serious victim of the Java fever. INSET: Sun survives its own bout with Java fever..

Details the challenges of bringing three-dimensional (3-D) graphics on the personal computers (PC). How Microsoft Corporation deals with the problem for 3-D graphics; Computer software that uses 3-D graphics; Companies where 3-D accelerators are widely used. INSETS: 3-D makes for strange bedfellows.;How the API war begun..

Presents an interview with David Patterson who led a design group that built the reduced instruction set computing (RISC) I and II processors. Reason for getting involved in RISC; Use of the Vax and the Intel 432 as examples in arguing for RISC; Impact of RISC; Outlook for RISC; Next big thing in computer architecture.

Reports that Sun Microsystems Inc. publicly introduces its Jini distributed-computing software. Reason behind the company's move; Partners of Sun Microsystems; Three separate forces that could blunt Sun Microsystems' effort.

Looks at the changes in integrated circuits. Kinds of semiconductor companies; Discussion on design reuse; Formula to demonstrate the need for design reuse offered by Aart de Geus of Synopsis Inc.

Features the Communicating Applications Platform and Telescript research projects of General Magic Incorporated. Development of user interfaces for mobile devices and the Telescript programming language for networks; Desire for a 3-volt personal computer memory card solution; Stage of final testing.

Deals with the competition between various desktops that will be featured at the 1993 Comdex Computer Show. Digital Equipment Corp.'s line of personal computers that support the Peripheral Component Interconnect local bus; Carrera Computers Inc.'s complete Alpha systems; Elitegroup Computer Systems Inc.'s planned production of Alpha motherboards; More.

Reports on IBM Corp.'s Power Personal Systems Division's plans to push its PowerPC architecture into the desktop-computing mainstream. Plans to unveil a PCI-bus-based hardware reference platform; Porting of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system to PowerPC; Acer Inc.'s plans to join the PowerPC bandwagon; More.

Introduces IBM Corp.'s Blue Lightning family of microprocessors. Challenge to Intel Corp.'s 486 family; Speed; Expanded external bus; License agreement with Intel; Expected shipment date; Shortage in 486 chips; Success of IBM's processors in Taiwan;.

Reports on International Business Machines Corp.'s formation of a division to develop, manufacture and market its PowerPC systems. Continuation of Advanced Workstations and Systems (AWS) operation; Approval of Motorola.

Focuses on the May 1998 Computer Game Developers Conference in Long Beach, California. Struggle to define the next level of computer graphics as the focus of the conference; Possible outcome of the event; Participating computer companies.

Reports on the legislation prepared by the United States Senate that seeks to overhaul the 1996 Telecommunications Reform Act. Reason for introducing the legislation; Author of the bill; Specific portion of the telecom act targeted by the bill.

Presents several computer peripherals that uses 1394 computer interface. Compact disk-read only memory (CD-ROM) decoder with an integrated 1394 physical layer (PHY) from Symbios Logic Inc.; Motherboards and systems with 1394 from Compaq Computer Corp. and Intel Corp.; Prototype hard-disk drives for Device Bay using 1394.

Focuses on the competition between Intel Corp., Advanced Micro Devices, Cyrix and Centaur Technology over who will offer the best 3-D graphics instruction-set extension. Unwillingnes of Microsoft Corp. to support different approaches to 3-D in Windows; Reaction of the three companies on a proposal to create a common 3-D technology; Design of the 3-D graphics of the three companies.

Interviews Daniel Sheinbein, vice president of American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) network architecture and development. Views of Sheinbein if network will be dominated by data or voice; His views concerning issues that confronts AT&T; Plans of Sheinbein in upgrading the network; Points about the infrastructure investments of AT&T; Key technologies for Sheinbein's wireline upgrades.

Features Ken Kutaragi, chairman of Sony Computer Entertainment America and creator of Playstation videogame machine. Engineering career of Kutaragi; Estimated sales of the Playstation; Other design efforts of Kutaragi.

Provides information on the business plans of Texas Instrument Inc. Corporate strategy for digital signal processing (DSP); Challenges faced by the company; Purpose of focusing on DSP and analog business.

Reports on the progress made by Intel-led NGIO Forum and the competing Future I/O group toward merging what have been two separate and contentious effort to define a channel-based I/O architecture for computer servers. Areas where the groups are making progress; Logistical details.

Announces that Toshiba Corp. will introduce a family of embedded controllers in March 1999. Application to video game console Sony Playstation; Comment from Michael Raam, director of engineering for embedded processors at Toshiba; Significance of Playstation in Toshiba.

Focuses on two companies that are combining multiple processors on a single chip. Plans of C-Port Corp.; Plans of SiTera Inc.; Background of C-Port's founders.

Provides information on the business plans of Intel Corp. Design of multiple chip sets for eight-way multiprocessing systems; Development of features for Katmai-generation microprocessors; Introduction of the 450-Megahertz Pentium II Xeon.

Focuses on the support of Apple Computer Inc. on the OpenGL 3-D application program interface (API) developed by Silicon Graphics Inc. Efforts to make the Mac OS a computer game platform; Implications of Apple's support for OpenGL; Outlook of proprietary API.

Highlights the competition of computer companies on the standard input/output (I/O) architecture for high-end personal computers. Coalition formed by Compaq Computer, IBM Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co.; Allies of Intel Corp. in its Next-Generation I/O; Common goal of the technology.

Reports the plans of Intel Corp. to add security and software functions to future chip sets, in a move to boost the profile of its Katmai processors. How the plan raises concerns among software, semiconductor and systems companies; Information on Intel's firmware hub, a flash memory with key basic input/output system functions; Key features of the chip.

Reports on the refusal of Compaq Computer Corp., IBM Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. to adopt the next-generation computer input/output architecture of Intel Corp. Agreement between the three computer makers; Commitment of Hewlett-Packard to openly developed standards; Efforts of Intel to convince top computer makers to accept its scheme. INSET: Embedded world considers new I/O route, by David Lieberman.

Announces that Intel Corp. will give details of the Peripheral Component Interconnect technology (PCI) it dubbed as next-generation I/O (NGI/O). Its life extension; Comment from Tom Bradicich of the personal computer (PC) server group of IBM; Goal of NGI/O.

Focuses on the plan of Intel Corp. executives for a mainstream logic process which aims to lower costs for peripheral chips. Application of the process; Comment from Craig Barrett, Intel's president and chief executive; Significance of the peripheral process.

Details the plan of the Intel Corp. to supplant peripheral component interconnect (PCI) in high-end personal computers (PCs). Features of the NGI/O and PCI-X proposed by Compaq Computer Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co. and IBM Corp.; Implication of the plan; How Intel will demonstrate its concept.

Reports that Intel Corp. assembled a tiger team that aims to eliminate Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus from personal computers by the year 2000. Analysis on the company's move; Implication of the move; Information on ISA.

Looks at the efforts of Chromatic Research Inc. for an investment on a media processor. Information on the tasks of the chip; Comments from officials at Chromatic Research; Information on the Mpact device, which the company previously developed using a technique known as very long instruction word.

Provides information on Carmel microprocessor for workstations and servers developed by Intel Corp. Dynamic random access memory (DRAM) technology used by Intel; Companies that plan to use the microprocessor; Expectation of Intel on the transition to Direct Rambus.

Reports that Texas Instruments Inc. revealed details of its process-technology road map and product directions as it reshapes itself into a company focused on digital signal processors. Information on interviews with executives of the company; Status of the company's commercial designs; Products offered by the company.

Reports on the development of flash cards for all electronic portable systems. Installation of memory device; Violation of patent by some minicard developers; Use of a variety of form-factors.

Reports that Sundance, a group representing Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Cyrix Corp., Compaq Computer Corp. and International Business Machines Corp., plans to publish an open specification for a processor bus that would compete with the Intel P6 microprocessor. Specification for multimedia-acceleration extensions to the X86 instruction set; Agreement for a multiprocessor interrupt controller OPEN PIC.

Presents several portable computers. Apple Computer's Duo 2300; Compaq's LTE 5000; Texas Instruments Inc.'s TravelMate 5100.

Looks at concerns of CD-ROM drive makers who are already worried about the possibility of a rocky transition to Digital Video Disk technology. The assertion that the latest generation of products--6x players--may be reaching their speed limit; Comments about the stability of the optical pickup unit; More.

Reports that Intel Corp. is tempting systems vendors in Taiwan with the promise of nearly free videoconferencing on Pentium-based computers. The company's plans to pull three technologies together to eliminate almost all the incremental hardware required for videoconferencing; Discussion of native signal processing (NSP); The role of the PCMCIA card; More.

Reports that the Taiwan government has formulated a plan to back the simultaneous development of its own P6 and P7 generations of X86 microprocessors. Why researchers involved in this project hope that their work will help unshackle the information-technology industry from the increasingly dominant role of Intel Corp.

Reports on Intel Corp.'s move to rally support for its native signal processing (NSP) initiative at the 1995 Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (Win-HEC) in San Francisco, California. Emphasis on the cost advantages of the NSP architecture; Signal-processing tasks performed by NSP on a Pentium host microprocessor; Role of software developers and producers in the NSP infrastructure.

Reports on Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s and Cyrix Corp.'s efforts to develop an Intel-independent multiprocessor server architecture. Application for Cyrix M1; AMD K5; Intel P6 central processing units; Announcement at the 1995 Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC).

Reports that Motorola Inc. and NEC Electronics Inc. tipped plans for new microprocessors to boost the market for pocket-sized systems. Portable Computer Components Conference in December 1994; Motorola's Sector Personal Systems group's introduction of the architecture behind a single-chip PCU for a handheld personal communicator; NEC's core-based, application-specific solution.

Reports on the speech given by Andrew Grove, president and chief executive officer for Intel Corp., at the 1994 Comdex Computer Show held in Las Vegas, Nev. on the need to develop an improved microcomputer architecture. Introduction of Intel's Native Signal Processing initiative; Views from industry officials; Features.

Reports on the support by several original equipment manufacturers (OEM) for Corollary Inc.'s CBus II architecture. Use of CBus for Pentium P54C-based symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) servers; Corollary's approach that defines chip sets and proprietary multiprocessing buses for tying together multiple Pentium central processing units (CPU). INSET: Elsewhere in multiprocessing-land..

Reports that the Sundance Group, a group of microprocessor and personal computer system companies, is preparing a specification for a sophisticated processor bus that could directly compete with the new bus architecture of Intel Corp.'s P6 processor. Composition of Sundance's membership; Details of the Sundance project; Interest of core-log companies to join the group.

Previews Intel Corp.'s slowed-down version of the 3.3.-V P54C Pentium that will be the first Pentium-grade CPU in a tape-carrier package or tape automated bonding (TAB). Physical description; Packaging; Product support; Problems implementing Pentium portables; Feedback from industry executives.

Reports on Intel Corp.'s decision to stop producing the Polar chip it has codeveloped with VLSI Technology Incorporated. Reasons for the decision; Physical description of the Polar chip; Implications on Microsoft Corp.'s WinPad software; Impact on original equipment manufacturers; Intel's marketing schemes.

Reports on Compaq Computer Corp.'s confirmation that reviews of its Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) were so poor that it decided to scrap the prototype. Impact on Microsoft Corp.'s WinPad platform for handheld devices; Implications on the PDA market; Feedback from industry executives.

Reports on Time Warner Cable's testing of its Full Service Network (FSN) project in Orlando, Florida. Interactive television trials; Silicon Graphics Inc. as the major development partner; Terms of the agreement; Scope of the services for the Orlando trial; Technological demands of the project.

Reports that Hewlett-Packard Co. and Novell Inc. have invested in system software developer Geoworks. Background information on Geoworks; Additional funding for Geoworks' research projects from the new partners; What Hewlett-Packard will gain from the investment; Novell's closer links to an existing development partner as it reaches into the field of mobile computing; Microsoft as direct competitor.