August 28, 1988

HOW MANY SQUARE FEET? Thanks to the tipster who called with information about the recent negotiations between Steve Jobs and a Peninsula property-management company. The tipster said Jobs is looking for about 1 million square feet of manufacturing and office space for Next (latest rumors say a mid-October announcement). His people have been prowling around Menlo Park and environs.

The company honcho who was supposedly involved in these negotiations didn’t return my call, and I’m not printing his name out of mercy for the receptionist. But supposedly part of the whole brouhaha was that Jobs took the term “build to suit” to a whole new level. He found buildings he liked but wanted the company, at its cost, to level them and rebuild them according to his blueprints. That was a big “no go.”

A MOMENT OF SILENCE for another chip company in the valley that’s supposedly biting its last bullet this week. California Devices Inc., the Milpitas company that did the first channel-less gate array, has been in Chapter 11 for a year, but rumor has it that it will file for the big one, Chapter 7, next week. The phone has been disconnected (though, strangely, the fax number was busy), so I couldn’t get confirmation from the company.

EVERYBODY IS A STAR: Last time I looked, Altos Computer Systems was losing some key executives, but it seems corporate life has calmed considerably and Altos will roll out a new entry-level platform next week.
A company spokesman wouldn’t comment on the rumors. But my sources say it’s a low-end, multiuser UNIXbox, and by Comdex in November, you’ll be able to run DOS as the server and pull up UNIX in a window. All for $4K-10K, depending on configuration. Pretty slick.

The new machine is based on the Intel 80386 chip, but it’s designed to have a ridiculously easy upgrade path to faster versions of the ‘386 as they come along, as well as eventually to the 80486 (bets are that Altos will have the first multi-user ‘486 box on the market).

Altos is an anomaly in the computer biz first because it’s actually been around for 11 (profitable) years and also because it’s all-VAR, all the time — it sells only to value-added resellers, which is why you never see it set up at your local dealer.

DE-REG FEVER: The deregulation of the phone companies is turning up some interesting services. Close to deadline last week, I heard about a co-development project — by Pacific Bell Information Services and Digital Equipment Corp. — for a “universal E-mail” service. It would allow DEC’s All-in-One electronic mail package to run statewide on any and all computers over phone lines.

A Pac Bell spokesman says the company is indeed working on such a project. And if they really want to make me happy, they should start working on this: Someone told me about a service in development — they didn’t know by whom — that will let you call an electronic info service number, punch in your password on a touch-tone phone, and have it read your messages to you over the phone. No computer required.

THE ENVELOPE PLEASE: The “Casting Couch Award of 1988″ for the coming movie about Steve Jobs, “The Journey is the Reward,” goes to Ron Ogg of Orinda. I laughed out loud when I read his all-star lineup. Ogg says he met most of these folks during a stint at Xerox Retail. He’s now a consultant. Here are his choices:
- Mike Markkula: Danny DeVito
- Steve Wozniak: Howie Mandel
- Steve Jobs: Sean Penn
- John Sculley: Steven Banks
(of “Steven Banks’ Home Entertainment Center,” the one-man show that’s about “a corporate drudge who slips into a fantasy world of rock stardom,” according to the Pink Section)
- Leezy Sculley: Whoopi Goldberg
And the whole thing directed by Renny Harlin, of “Nightmare on Elm Street 4″ fame.(There’s a parallel concept for you). Then, Ogg says, if any of the above aren’t available, here are some alternatives:
- Woz: Bob Goldthwait or Robin Williams
- Steve Jobs: Willem Dafoe (didn’t he just play Jobs’ part in another movie?)
- John Sculley: Dabney Coleman or David Bowie
- Leezy Sculley: Phyllis Diller
All directed by Martin Scorcese. And all in good fun, bubbula.