Highest software assessment level for Wipro GE: Wipro GE Medical Systems, a joint venture between Wipro and General Electric, has got the Software Engineering Institute, Capability Maturity Model (SEI CMM) Level 5, the highest assessment level for a software organisation. The international assessors praised the design and management processes followed by the Wipro GE, GSO (India) team.

21st-century movie stars to go digital: No more artistic disagreements. No more demands for multimillion-dollar contracts or fights over top billing. The movie star of the 21st century will be a perfectlyobedient computer programme, predicts an executive at Walt Disney Co. America's scientific community got a sneak preview of this future late on Thursday -- an innocuous-looking cyber-geek named Monty, which can move its cartoon character lips in anatomically correct synchronization as it voice sentences typed live into a laptop computer.

SAP to face tough '99 as Y2K bug bites: German software group SAP is likely to report poor 1998 results and a muted outlook for 1999 next week, as demand for its sophisticated products tails-off in the run up to the millennium. Earlier this month, SAP reported preliminary 1998 figures showing a 15 per cent rise in 1998 pre-tax profit, far below the group's own forecast of a 30 to 35 per cent increase in earnings. Analysts said they expected similarly disappointing growth in the bottom line figures, and that this would herald the start of a series of dullish earnings reports from SAP -- a company from which investors had come to expect spectacular growth.

Japanminnow beats giants to key laser technology: A small Japanese high-tech company has beaten the odds and some of the world's electronic giants by becoming the first firm to develop a violet-light laser for commercial use. Nichia Chemical Industries, a privately owned firm based in southern Japan, said on Thursday it would start sample shipments of the laser early in February, ahead of rivals Sony Corp, Toshiba Corp, International Business Machines Co and other big names. Violet-light laser, which has a shorter wavelength than the currently available red-light laser, is seen as a key technology for boosting the storage capacity of digital video discs (DVDs) and other recording media.

Stratus to create 700 Irish jobs: Stratus Computer, a unit of US Company Ascend Communications Inc., plans to create at least 700 new computer and back office jobs in Dublin, the Irish Times reported on Friday. Stratus, which manufactures mainframe systems in Ireland, is expected to split into three separatecompanies and expand rapidly, the newspaper said. The jobs would be in research and development, technical support and financial shared services, the report said.