The winners of the Education and Living - CMS Peripherals design competition are San Carlo National School in Confey, Leixlip, Co Kildare, and Mercy Secondary School in Navan, Co Meath.

Second-level schools were asked to submit a design for a CD cover for an Irish multimedia encyclopaedia while primary school students were required to design the scariest millennium bug they could imagine. Both schools win an "Eduserve" package worth £2,000 each. The package contains a Cdserve, a new product developed by CMS Peripherals which allows multiple use of single CD Roms. So instead of the schools needing to buy individual CD Roms for individual terminals, Cdserve will allow them disperse a single CD-Rom across a network of computers, which in turn reduces the cost of expensive educational aids like the Encarta Encyclopaedia. The unit is capable of storing a minimum of 10 CDs.

Both schools will also receive three free CDs with a licence to use them on an unlimited number of work stations.

Cdserve is currently being used by a number of third-level institutions and through the company's involvement with National Council of Technology in Education (NCTE), CMS Peripherals have introduced the system into a number of innercity schools in Dublin.

Catherine Smith, IT co-ordinator of the Cistercian College, Co Tipperary, who has been using Cdserve for a year now, says the system is regularly used and is much easier than handing out CDs which can get easily damaged or lost. CMS Peripherals was established in London in 1988 by Mayo-born Frank Salmon. Since 1993 the company have been operating out of Kiltimagh, Co Mayo, developing data storage software for the Irish and British markets.

Further information about Cdserve can be obtained from CMS peripherals business development manager, Paul McGrath, at (094) 81871.