BAKER'S NEWS BITS FROM ASSORTED SOURCES - 11/1/93

Corporate financial filings with the SEC will be available at no cost on
the Internet by year's end through a National Science Foundation grant.
The federal government previously had favored contracts with information
services vendors to provide public access to government data for a fee.

Supposedly Silicon Graphics and Nintendo announced an agreement to build
64-bit arcade and home entertainment systems. The new systems will have a
Mips processor, a graphics accelerator, and unspecified ASICs. The
partners call this "Reality Immersion Technology." Attendees at SIGGRAPG
'93 in Anaheim, CA got a taste of what this technology might accomplish at
the Silicon Graphics booth, if they were willing to stand in line for
hours. They got a chance to "ride a pterodactyl" in a canyon with rushing
water below. The wrap-around screen let several people get into the scene
with each lucky rider. Target features of the Nintendo system include
24-bit color, CD-quality audio, over 100,000 polygons/sec, with polygons
defined as 50-pixel meshed triangles, and real-time anti-aliased texture
mapping. Plans call for arcade games in 1994 and home systems in 1995 for
about $250.

Tradewest's new Fun 'n' Games video game for the Sega Genesis and SNES
systems will display the Good Housekeeping Seal on the game package. It is
the first video game to receive the endorsement, according to Tradewest.

Pioneer Electronics has announced the October retail launch of LaserActive
- the first multimedia format to combine high-quality full-motion video,
digital sound, and interactive capabilities. The system consists of a main
unit (combination LaserDisc/CD player), the CLD-A100, and one or three
optional control packs. LaserActive, developed in technical cooperation
with Sega Enterprises and NEC Home Electronics, is designed to take
advantage of existing software libraries for LaserDisc, video game, and
LaserKaraoke songs. Currently the company is in negotiations with Sega of
America, Virgin Games, Digital Pictures, and the New Learning Project to
develop LaserActive titles.

Study Group 14, the International Telecommunications Union group charged
with developing a standard for higher-speed modem data transmission, has
come up with a plan for approving the V.fast protocol by June of next
year. In recognition of the new status given to the protocol, V.fast is
now called Draft Recommendation V.34. "It would not be surprising to see
V.34-compliant products on the market shortly after the finalized text is
submitted to the ITU in February 1994," says Dick Brandt of AT&T and vice
chairman of ITU-T Study Group 14. Brandt says that although some decisions
on feature options are yet to be made, the sections dealing with the data
mode are essentially complete. The group has now switched its focus to the
startup section. By December of this year, the specification is expected
to be completed. That will allow for some interoperability testing prior
to putting the final text in the hands of the ITU Telecommunications
Standardization Burear by late February 1994. Brandt is optimistic that
Recommendation V.34 will be approved by the Study Group in June 1994.

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