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PARC Signs On A Partner: Fujitsu 96

Posted by timothy from the wizards-of-ix dept.
leighklotz writes "PARC, which a few years ago was said be be targeted for a spin-off from Xerox, has signed on its first major partner under its new life as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Xerox. Fujitsu has announced "Joint Research in Ubiquitous Computing," a three-year sponsored-research plan beginning in January 2005. 'Because we're not a product company, we need a partner like Fujitsu who can deliver our products into the marketplace,' said Teresa Lunt, according to InfoWorld."
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PARC Signs On A Partner: Fujitsu More

PARC Signs On A Partner: Fujitsu

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  • This partnership makes perfect sense for PARC. Marking (or lack thereof) can make or break a company regardless of if they have a good product or not. These days there are so many names and buzz words flying about that serious effort (ie money and advertising talent) must be made to boost brand name recognition.

    • May I speak for all of Slashdot when... (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      ...I ask what in the hell you're talking about?
    • I agree. Just the other day, I heard about a company went under when they fired their star programmer for leaving a disk labeled "main project-2004" on his desk (which was used in a presentation to the venture capitalists), instead of marking it "Sesame street - hardcore pr0n." He just didn't have a marker.

      To make a long story short, the company didn't get the investment they needed due to a bad presentation, and they went under.

      I don't think Fujitsu is really known for it's marking...shouldn't they hav
      • my goodness, I hope (but doubt) that the "interesting" mod is a continuation of the joke posed by the parent post. Somehow though, I think that "insightful" would have been funnier. Someone with mod points willing to correct? hint: mark it "funny".
      • Um, guys I think this was meant to be funny, it was a pun on his use of marking, as apposed to marketing in the parent post
    • Calling it a partnership is all well and good, but these sorts of things are a very delicate balance.

      The goal of creating good ideas is nearly always in conflict with with the goal of creating products that can be commercialised this year or next year.

      How much budget and work could you justify devoting to a GUI in the mid 70s if you knew that the technology would be too expensive to sell for 10 years and impossible to patent at that time?

  • Now, at last (Score:4, Funny)

    by RealProgrammer ( 723725 ) on Wednesday December 15, 2004 @01:52AM (#11090224) Homepage Journal
    Fujitsu will make something that works.

    • That's right! Because PARC has such a _great_ history creating lasting tools and products!

      • Re:Now, at last (Score:5, Informative)

        by iocat ( 572367 ) on Wednesday December 15, 2004 @03:26AM (#11090580) Homepage Journal
        Despite PARCs perceived failures (like not capitalizing commercially on the GUI), its creation of the laser printer more than made the entire endeavor profitable for Xerox. I suggest reading Dealers of Lightning [amazon.com] for a great history of Xerox PARC.
      • Those 'failures' have more to do with the morons that led, and are leading Xerox, than failures on the part of PARC's scientists.

    • Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday December 15, 2004 @02:08AM (#11090304)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • >hat does Fujitsu make that is broken?

        Hard drives that grind and blow smoke, mostly. I guess I've just always thought of them as a second-quality manufacturer.

        Plus, I'm sorry, their name is just funny to say.

    • Re:Now, at last (Score:5, Insightful)

      by WIAKywbfatw ( 307557 ) on Wednesday December 15, 2004 @02:37AM (#11090417) Journal
      Uh, you know those original IBM keyboards that everyone raves about? They're made by Fujitsu. I had one that was Fujitsu-labelled back in 1991, and it was only a couple of years ago, when I moved house and had to let go of some unused hardware, that it left my possession in full working order.

      On a secondary note, notice how Fujitsu is a Japanese company? If keeping the high-tech industry and high-tech jobs in America is such a big deal then why is it that there wasn't a single US company prepared to fight for a partnership with PARC? Granted, IBM is exiting the PC arena but PARC is about more than just developing for the desktop, and I would have thought that the PR benefits of dealing with the home of the GUI would be to die for for Apple, HP or someone similar.

      • Re:Now, at last (Score:3, Interesting)

        by euxneks ( 516538 )
        I am now typing on a Fujitsu keyboard. It's very nice.. Clicky clicky. =) It's big, and heavy, but I can probably type faster with this keyboard than any other keyboard I've ever used.
      • Did you just say "let go of some unused hardware"?? That's it, hand in your slashdot number! No self respecting geek actually gets rid of old hardware, it's suppose to just get burried underneath all the other junk -
        Like, For example, the Timex Sinclair 1000 I found recently while moving a small stack of books and papers :P

        • Uh, you know those original IBM keyboards that everyone raves about? They're made by Fujitsu. I had one that was Fujitsu-labelled back in 1991

        Hmmm, just hefted my IBM badged board upside down (straining my shoulder in the process):

        • ...
        • Date: 06NOV89
        • Plt F2 Model M
        • Made in the USA

        Cool thing, even being 15 years old, it has ps/2 plug (makes sense I suppose being an IBM) as opposed to the big old plug (DIN?).
        • The one that I had had a older DIN connection rather than a PS/2 one. If it had had the PS/2 connection then I probably would have kept it around a bit longer, but there was little justification for keeping a keyboard (albeit an excellent keyboard) when buying an adapter so that I could use it again would have cost me almost as much as I paid for the keyboard in the first place (a bargain £11 back in 1991).

          Besides, I'm so used to using a split-key keyboard nowadays that using a traditional keyboard l
      • If keeping the high-tech industry and high-tech jobs in America is such a big deal then why is it that there wasn't a single US company prepared to fight for a partnership with PARC?

        Because we don't do R here anymore. And we oursource D to Maylaysia and India. And we got rid of manufacturing years ago. What do we do these days? Sue, market, and surf, baby... sue, market, and surf...

      • On a secondary note, notice how Fujitsu is a Japanese company?

        I work for Xerox in Australia - where it is called Fuji-Xerox. 75% owned by Fuji Film (Japan) and 25% owned by Xerox (USA).

    • Re:Now, at last (Score:3, Insightful)

      by phaze3000 ( 204500 )
      Actually, I've had nothing but good experiences with Fujitsu stuff. I'm a big fan in particlar of the Fujitsu-Siemens notebooks (and as far as I'm aware they're much more Fujitsu than Siemens). They seem to be one of the few companies targetting what I want in a laptop - something that's as small and light as possible whilst still being useful, as opposed to the portable desktops many other people produce (IMO 17" screens are really not suitable for laptops).

      I've used a fair few Fujitsu servers without an

      • Same here, their hard drives might be lack luster though I have some and they seem to last about as well as any, but their business products I use rock. Fujitsu document scanners (not the home toys but the 5K-20K 20-90 ppm real documet scanners) rock. I have some that were made in 1995 - 2004 all good scanners that require little maintenance (remove paper shards when they get in the way of optical switches which is rare, change the rubber paper guide and clean the rollers every 6 months ... replace pinch
    • I worked with them back in 96, Hal Computers. First Ultrasparc to market. Even beat Sun Micro, but they never took it anywhere. They sucked the tech out of the company and then tried to corner the Asian UNIX market. They may make it work but they won't bother to do so here.

      Now don't get me wrong, I liked them. But their focus isn't the West. They are strong on their base and may be angling to just snap it up. Time will tell.

    • Fujitsu will make something that works.

      And PARC will make something.

  • And this time... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Nonillion ( 266505 ) on Wednesday December 15, 2004 @01:58AM (#11090258)
    Don't let Steve Jobs and Bill Gates rip off your hard work.....
  • Xerox shouldn't start spinning things off untill they can make a user friendly copier that doesn't leave one wondering... PC load letter?

  • Excellent news, but what's next? (Score:3, Funny)

    by jarich ( 733129 ) on Wednesday December 15, 2004 @02:08AM (#11090307) Homepage Journal
    So, when will PARC be able to copy this again? They'll need all their game pieces in place if they want to be able to have a monopoly.

    ;)

    Seriously though, if they can spin off another group, it can be parallel PARC-ing while the other group drives on.

    (Ducking and running now)

  • Before you ask (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Teresa Lunt is not cute [xerox.com]

    -dk
  • I KNOW there's a joke in there somewhere about blowing the payoff of anything big that Xerox comes up with, but I'm too tired to think of one.

  • RC, ARC, PARC, SPARC (Score:5, Funny)

    by morcheeba ( 260908 ) on Wednesday December 15, 2004 @02:34AM (#11090411) Journal
    Ok, I should have seen this coming. Fujitsu sells RC extraction tools [fujitsu.com], has licensed an ARC core [design-reuse.com] and they make SPARC processors [sparcprodu...ectory.com]. Obviously PARC was the missing link!
  • This announcement is not a huge surprise. FX Palo Alto Laboratory (FXPAL) [fxpal.com] is on the same block as PARC [fxpal.com]. FX as in Fuji Xerox.

  • Buy! (Score:3, Funny)

    by mrshoe ( 697123 ) on Wednesday December 15, 2004 @02:58AM (#11090503) Homepage
    Quick, buy some Fujitsu stock... they're bound to steal some revolutionary ideas the guys at PARC have been sitting on unknowingly.
  • "PARC, which a few years ago was said be be targeted for a spin-off from Xerox"

    Hmm, looks like the Xerox copying feature got got out of hand...

  • Apple? (Score:2, Funny)

    by koi88 ( 640490 )

    Because we're not a product company, we need a partner like Fujitsu who can deliver our products into the marketplace,'

    I thought this is Apple's job...
  • Yeah PARC makes great things. I like the story of when Steve Jobs visited PARC and "stealing" the idea for the mouse.

    btw both of my Fujitsu hard drives failed. Needless to say I never bought a third one. Fool me twice, shame on me!
  • Fujitsu was a martial art practiced during sex.

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