Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 29, 1993 TAG: 9305290030
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
Microsoft, the nation's largest software company, and several large office-product makers will announce June 9 the new standard that could eliminate the overlapping functions of printers, copiers and fax machines.
"Everyone who makes a fax, printer, copier or phone should be aware of this and take a hard look at participating in making products that conform to this architecture," Gates said in an interview.
The standard is the first step to a "digital office" that will distribute documents more efficiently and securely, he said.
The road to the software standard is being paved by some advances in infrared technology led by Hewlett-Packard Co., analysts say.
"They've got some very good patents that they have received in the area of infrared that they're licensing to the competition to help assure there's an open standard," said Ken Jacobsen, consultant with Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, Calif.
Hewlett-Packard unveiled some palm-sized computers that incorporate the infrared technology this week.
"Today, it exists in some small products. You're going to see it in some large products down the road," said Roy Breslauski, an HP product line manager.
Although many office machines already can "talk" to computers, the new standard will be based on Microsoft's Windows system, popular in many personal computers.
Fax manufacturers Ricoh and Muratec, formerly Murata Business Systems Inc., have said they would participate in the Microsoft announcement. Sharp, Panasonic, Canon and several others also are planning products incorporating the software, the trade journal Infoworld reported this week.
"We'll have a pretty good critical mass of fax, copier and phone-type makers," Gates said.
A common standard will allow software writers to develop applications tailored for various office settings.
Products with the interface will carry a trademark Gates said would be unveiled at the announcement.
Microsoft and Intel Corp., the leading maker of chips that are the brains of personal computers, this month said they were working on a standard interface that will allow a telephone to be operated from a personal computer.
The two companies also are working on a specification they hope becomes the standard for cable-converter boxes that Everyone who makes a fax, printer, copier or phone should be aware of this . . . Bill Gates will make TVs interactive information tools.
This week, Microsoft unveiled its next-generation Windows NT operating system for the desktop computer, where the company's fortune was made. The NT system, able to link PCs into networks that can be as powerful as a mainframe computer, is Microsoft's first step into an arena of very advanced corporate computing.
by CNB