The Leading Information Technology News Summary - In Its 40th Year - Vol.40 No.21

Sep 29, 2026

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Information Technology news roundup marks its 40th year with issue Vol.40 No.21 dated May 24, 1999, highlighting major developments across networking, storage, and consumer computing. The edition reports Alteon WebSystems demonstrating gigabit Ethernet over copper and projecting early shipments of 1000BASE-T products. It also covers IBM’s breakthrough hard-disk storage density and Apple iMac distribution expansion through Sears.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryTechnology

FormatPDF

Pages9

Reading Time23 min

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ALTEON WEBSYSTEMS DEMONSTRATES WORLD'S FIRST GIGABIT ETHERNET OVER COPPER EQUIPMENT

Sears To Sell Apple's Popular iMacs

AT 20 BILLION BITS PER SQUARE INCH, IBM SETS NEW DRIVE STORAGE RECORD

NUAUCTION.COM GIVING 1,000 FREE LAPTOPS TO REGISTERED USERS

# The Leading Information Technology News Summary--In Its 40th Year Vol.40No.21 May 24,1999 ## ALTEON WEBSYSTEMS DEMONSTRATESWORLD'S FIRST GIGABIT ETHERNETOVER COPPER EQUIPMENT New 1000BASE-T Adapters Slated ToHit Market In Second Half Of'99 Reachinga milestone in the networked world,Alteon WebSystems earlier this month demonstratedGigabit Ethernet technology running over copper wir-ing,and said it expects to ship the industry's firstcopper-basedGigabitEthernet products beginning withcontrolled shipments sometime next month. Gigabit Ethernet,an extension of the popularEthernet technology,isarelatively new datacommuni-cations method that supports transmission of one bil-lion bits of data per second. And while the current Gigabit Ethernet stan-dard ratified last July by the IEEE(Institute of Electri-cal and ElectronicEngineers)hasonly been specified torunoverfibermedia,amajority oftoday's buildings are(Continued on Page 2) ## Sears To Sell Apple'sPopular iMacs Apple Computer Inc.says it will soon addSears,Roebuck and Co.to its list of iMac distributors.Sears will begin offering iMac PCs to its customers byMemorial Day weekend at 825 locations nationally.Sears will also carry a wide range of iMac peripheralsthat plug into iMac's Universal Serial Bus(USB)port,including printers and disk drives."One in three iMacsis being purchased by a first-time computer buyer,andwe believe Sears'broad geographic coverage and aloyalcustomer base can help us reach even more of these newcustomers,"says Mitch Mandich,Apple's senior vicepresident ofWorldwide Sales.“More than 50 percent ofcomputer buyers at Sears are buying their first com-puter,"adds Sears GM Chuck Cebuhar.About 32 per-cent of iMac buyers are first-time computer buyers andan additional 11 percent are Wintel converts. Weekly ## AT 20 BILLION BITS PERSQUARE INCH,IBM SETSNEW DRIVE STORAGE RECORD Development Will Enable New Capabilities ForPortable Devices Using IBM Microdrives IBM Corp.has set a new world record in harddisk storage density,writing and reading data bits sosmall that an unprecedented20 billionofthem wouldfitwithin a square inch. The new record density of 20 gigabits persquareinch(3.1gigabitspersquare centimeter)ismorethan three times that of any disk drive product shippingtoday.At such a density,every square inch of diskspacecould hold2.5gigabytes--equivalent totwo TV-quality movies,two hours of MPEG-2 digital video,nearly the contents of 4 CD-ROMs or the text of some 2,500 average-sized novels. “This laboratory demonstration is very goodnews for our customers and the data storage industry,"(Continued on Page b) IN THIS ISSUE— Marketing Event For Web/Software Startups 2In Latest Promo,NuAuction Gives Away Laptops..2New Netscape Browser Includes RealPlayer G2-.3MARKET RESEARCH --…3Fee-Based Portal For Govt.Sites,Info Debut --4Compaq Launches Web Program For Dealers 5Symantee's Digital Immune SystemStrategy ---…5PSDI Ranked\#1In Maintenance Management----…6PEOPLE ON THE MOVE …6New Linuzcom Portal Up And Running- …7PowerPC Runs New NASA Flight Computer -7Global Software Support Market Forecas… -…7Sun Says Solaris Will Now Run Linux App.-…. wired using copper-based(Category 5)cabling sys- “Offering Gigabit Ethernet connections overcopper is considered critical to the continued ramp inmarket penetration,"says Steven Strom,director ofproduct management for Alteon WebSystems."In cus-tomer environments,copper connections outnumberfiber connections by almost 10-to-1.”Strom adds thatthenew Alteon 10/100/1000BASE-TACEnicwill alsobringjumbo frame technology to mixed Fast Ethernetand Gigabit Ethernet LANs for the very first time. A new draft standard(802.3ab)is expected tobe ratified ineitherJune orat the latest Septemberby theIEEE.Gigabit Ethernet over unshielded twisted pair(UTP)wiring is expected to drive down the cost andprice ofGigabitadapters while utilizing currentcablingsystems.T

FAQs

What technology milestone does Alteon WebSystems demonstrate in this issue?

Alteon WebSystems demonstrates gigabit Ethernet technology running over copper wiring and expects to begin shipping copper-based gigabit products soon.

How does IBM describe its new storage density record?

IBM sets a world record for hard-disk storage density, stating that 20 billion data bits fit within a square inch.

What does NuAuction.com plan to offer registered users?

NuAuction.com plans to randomly select registered users who list at least 10 items to receive 1,000 free laptops.

Sep 29, 2026

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