Product Development

The strikes hobbling General Motors Corp. are now threatening to disrupt the debut this fall of its most important vehicle: the 1999 Chevrolet Silverado full-size pickup truck. The labor disruptions come just as GM is beginning initial production of the Silverado and sister GMC Sierra. The new pickups replace the venerable C/K pickups that have long been among GM's most popular and profitable trucks.

Sprint Corp. promised to revolutionize the way people use their telephones, when it unveiled a bold plan Tuesday for a new network that would allow a customer's standard phone line to handle multiple voice calls, faxes and high-speed Internet access simultaneously. While other companies have been tinkering with components of Sprint's new all-in-one system, the Westwood, Kan.-based long-distance giant is the first major company to bet its entire network on the technology that drives the Internet.

First-weekend results for 20th Century Fox's "The X-Files" and Walt Disney Co.'s "Mulan" are deceptive in terms of profitability. While both got off to solid starts--$30.1 million for "X-Files" and about $22.7 million for "Mulan"--U.S. grosses will tell only part of the story. Both films illustrate why studios are so hungry for franchises. "X-Files" cost $66 million and is likely to reach $80 million to $100 million at U.S. box office.

Amid steady reports of an impending Federal Trade Commission antitrust lawsuit against Intel's mountainous empire, the competitive landscape of the microprocessor industry is rapidly shifting underfoot. On Thursday, one of Intel's chief competitors, Advanced Micro Devices, announced a new version of its flagship central processor, dubbed K6-2, that appears to have significant price and performance advantages over competing Intel chips.

Intel Corp. said Thursday that sales of some computers will be delayed by a flaw in its new Xeon microprocessor, which it will unveil Monday. The flaw in the Xeon is only a problem when the chip is used alongside the new 450 NX chip set in powerful servers, the machines that control computer networks. A chip set is the group of semiconductors that surround a microprocessor in a computer. Investors shrugged off the flaw when it was first reported earlier this week.

Western Digital Corp. said Monday that it finalized its deal with IBM Corp. to build new disk drives for personal computers. The deal, which will allow the Irvine-based drive maker to get a jump on emerging technologies and manufacturing lead-in time, was first announced in early May. Financial terms were not disclosed. The deal is expected to help bolster Western Digital's position in an unsteady industry beset by falling sales and product surpluses for almost a year.

Dental/Medical Diagnostic Systems in Westlake Village is seeking Food and Drug Administration approval to sell its teeth-whitening and curing system in the United States. The company has filed paperwork with the FDA for the Apollo 95E product and expects the process to take 60 to 90 days.

CardioVascular Dynamics Inc. said Monday it received U.S. Food and Drug Administration clearance to market its Guardian catheters. The Irvine company, which develops medical devices, said the catheters treat atherosclerosis, which blocks blood flow within coronary arteries. The devices feature a multi-diameter balloon technology designed to perform intervention procedures using low and high balloon inflation pressures on a catheter.

Gillette Co. on Wednesday unveiled Duracell Ultra alkaline batteries, designed to meet the power demands of high-tech electronic devices. The AA- and AAA-size Duracell Ultra batteries will last 50% longer than ordinary alkaline batteries, Gillette said. The Ultra, which will be shipped beginning in May, will be priced 20% higher than the current Duracell alkaline batteries. In the U.S., a Duracell Ultra AA four-pack will be priced at about $4.99.

Ever since Harlan Hugh began programming computers at age 6, he's wondered why computers aren't set up to work the way the human brain works. Last week, Hugh's Santa Monica company released the Brain, a user interface that organizes computer files in clusters that mimic the human thought process. More than three years in the making, the Brain groups files around "thoughts" and organizes those clusters of related items according to three kinds of relationships--"parents," "children" and "jumps."