IBM, Motorola position PowerPC 603 in mid-94

Electronic News, Oct 18, 1993 by Walter Andrews

BURLINGAME, CALIF. -- The PowerPC alliance of IBM, Motorola and Apple Computer formed to challenge Intel dominance today trots out what some consider its main contender, the PowerPC 603 RISC microsprocessor amied at notebook, laptop and low-end desktop computers.

IBM and Motorola said they will unveil the first silicon configuration and technical details of the 303-volt 603 at the microprocessor Forum here. Plans are to do alpha sampling to a small, select group of customers this quarter and general sampling in 1Q94, according to Phil Pompa, director of marketing for Motorola's RISC division in Austin, Tex.

Mr. Pompa said volume 603 production is scheduled for mid-1994. The RISC MPU will be made both at Motoral's MOS-11 facility in Austin and at IBM's Microelectronics plant in Burlington, Vt.

The alliance, formed in October, 1991, wants "a better look" at process yields before setting prices on the 603, Mr. Pompa said. However, he said Motorola's intent is to price the 603 lower than the 601 versions of the PowerPC, which Motorola prices from $280 to $500 each in quantities of 20,000; IBM, from $275 to $490 in quantities of 25,000 to 50,000.

Ken Lowe, principal analyst for microcomponents at Dataquest, San Jose, Calif., said that for PCs based on the MPU to be in the competitive "$3,000 to $4,000 arena" the 603 would have to be in the $400 price range. The 50MHz and 66MHz versions of the 601, which target desktop systems markets, began sampling in April of this year. Both are currently in volume production. In their respective quantities, Motorola prices the 50MHz 601 at $280 each; IBM, $275. Mtorola's 66MHz 601 unit price is $374; IBM's, $350.

IBM and Motorola also disclosed a faster 80MHz version of the PowerPC 601. Samples of the 80MHz MPUs are available immeadiately from IBM in quantities of 25,000 to 50,000 at $490 each and from Motorola in quantities of 20,000 at $500 each. Volume is scheduled to start next January.

The 601 is being produced by IBM, but, like the other 601s, Mr. Pomp said Motorola has no plans to make the device. He said Motorola will "stay focused" on production of the 603 and the follow-on 604 being designed for higher-performance desktop systems.

Motorola's Mr. Pompa said the 604 will probably be sampled by mid-1994 and be in volume production by the end of 1994. The alliane hopes to have samples of the 620 in late 1994 and start vlume production "in the first part of 1995," he added.

In a technical overview, meanwhile, Motorola said the superscalar 603 is the first low-power implementation of the PowerPC family. It implements the 32-bit portion of the PowerPC architecture, which provides 32-bit effective (logical) addresses, integer data types of 8, 16 and 32 bits, and floating-point data types of 32 and 64 bits. For 64-bits MPUs, the PowerPC, architecture provides 64-bit integar data types, 64-bit addressing and other features needed to complete the architecture.

Motorola said the 603 provides four software controllable power-saving modes. Three of these (nap, doze and sleep), are static and progressively reduce the amount of power dissipated by the processor. The fourth is a dymanic power management mode that causes functional units to automatically enter a low-power mode when the functional units are idle without affecting operational performance, software execution or any external hardware.

Mr. Lowe said the 603 and the follow-on 604 will be the alliance's first MUPs able to challenge Inel's Pentium. "I think what the're trying to do is position the PowerPC line as building its momentum up ... and trying to keep their presence up as they move through the next several quarters," he said.

The alliance's 601, introduced earlier this year and currently in volume production, "does not adequately position them against the Pentium, Mr. Lowe said. "The 601 was an attempt to enter the market as early as possible." Mr. Pompa, however, said the 601 with its lower power and lower cost is "more than competitive" with Pentium in desktop markets.

Mr. Lowe said, "I think the 603 and 604 are the really hot chips. I think when they finally roll them out and price them and talk about power and performance, I think that's when the impressiveness is going to come out."