Harris selects IBM PowerPC over Alpha, PA-RISC for Night Hawks

Electronic News, Nov 9, 1992 by Adam Greenberg

NEW YORK -- IBM's PowerPC architecture beat out Digital Equipment Corp.'s Alpha and Hewlett-Packard's PA-RISC for a marketing and development deal with the Harris Computer Systems division--the first identified outside user of the high-end PowerPC 604 and 620 circuits.

Although the agreement was anticipated (EN, Antenna, Nov. 2), the MPUs to be used came as a surprise. PowerPC allies IBM, Apple Computer and Motorola had limited all design disclosures to the entry-level 601 device, although it was revealed last week that 601 customer Thomson-CSF also committed to the 64-bit 620 and 604--seen as an eventual 601 replacement for high-end PCs and mainstream workstations.

Groupe Bull, the only other external PowerPC user, also has unspecified plans for the 604, an IBM spokesman said. No light was shed on the PowerPC partners' intentions for the 604 and 620, and the trio has not revealed any designs for the 603 circuit--aimed at low-power and low-cost desktop PCs and portables.

The Harris agreement specifies joint marketing with IBM Federal Systems of RS/6000 RISC workstations and Harris Night Hawk real-time scalable computers to government customers, with the 604 and 620 scheduled to be available on two new Night Hawk models by May 1994.

Joint marketing of current RS/6000 and Night Hawk versions could take place, although Harris officials indicated PowerPC configurations would be stressed. In government procurements, "it's not uncommon to bid and to win a product that is not going to be available for a year to a year-and-a-half time frame" said E. Courtney Siegel, vice president and general manager of Harris Computer Systems.

Wayne Goeller, manager of industry development for IBM Federal Systems, added the firms have not yet bid any RS/6000-Night Hawk combinations. "We have a number that we're looking at, but we're not active now."

Current Night Hawk systems will be upgradable from Motorola 88000 RISC MPUs via a board swap. Mr. Siegel said there are no plans to discontinue the 88K as a Night Hawk MPU option, but added, "Our customers are heat-seekers. They tend to buy the latest thing in marketplace and that will be the PowerPC."

Night Hawk's use of the Motorola RISC architecture played a role in its migration to the PowerPC, which began life as an RS/6000 Model 220 CPU overlayed with the 88110 bus structure. "Certainly the architecture has been around a longer period of time and the technology gets more out of it than just cranking up the clock speed," Mr. Siegel said, comparing the PowerPC, Alpha and PA-RISC. He said the 604 and 620 3.3 volt operation plus cooling requirements of systems configured around those MPUs were major considerations.

Harris and IBM will work to bring PowerPC-based Night Hawk systems into commercial applications such as simulation, industrial automation, on-line transaction processing and security-intensive client-server computing. The companies also will develop real-time capabilities for the RS/6000, although Night Hawk will handle the majority of real-time functions in joint installations. Development of RS/6000 real-time features is seen as a nine-month project scheduled to begin early next year.

The agreement does not call for Harris Computer Systems to use technologies developed solely by IBM, nor does it give Harris Semiconductor any PowerPC manufacturing rights. Mr. Siegel left the door open to future arrangements, however, citing IBM's graphics technologies as being attractive to Harris.