Article Abstract:
Corporate success in the 1990s may depend in large measure on the idea of competitive intelligence. Japanese corporations are practiced at worldwide information gathering; this is the analysis, delivery and use of information available outside a company's own corporate walls. Building competitive intelligence into a business system improves research and development efforts, supports management decisions and provides an early warning of possible problems. Competitive intelligence is a critical tool for gaining the advantage in global markets. Skill is necessary for analyzing the implications of appropriate information, gleaning the key points and gaining the attention of corporate decision makers. One competitive strategy is to selectively release important information to attract industry attention and gain greater opportunity for future business.
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Article Abstract:
Benchmarks are an important tool for prospective buyers considering the purchase of a computer. Traditionally, benchmarks were confined to the same class of system. However, with the advent of such advanced microprocessing technologies as reduced instruction-set computing, these boundaries are no longer as rigid as in the past. Different benchmarks are more useful to various types of user. It is therefore important to identify the class of user before choosing a benchmark by which prospective computer systems can be compared. Users can be divided up into single or multiple application users, computer manufacturer marketing staff and computer manufacturer design engineers. Detailed is an overview of benchmarks used to evaluate systems. Areas discussed include benchmarking goals, the changing focus of benchmarks and a balanced system assessment.
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Article Abstract:
Engineers expect more from new systems than faster, smaller, cheaper models. New functionality and the incorporation of new concepts into the machine's architecture could impact usefulness much further. For example, in 1992 the advent of the commercial 64-bit processor architecture, MIPS R4000 and DEC Alpha, hit the market. The question that lingers is when will software support for the 64-bit architecture become widely available. The most important technology to emerge in 1992 for the laptop market was the PC Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA) bus for pocket-sized cards that can eventually be used for general purpose I/O such as micro-sized hard disks to radio links and network connections to processor accelerators. Other significant advances were made in parallel processing and in wireless networking.
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