PowerPC camp at crossroads

Electronic News, Sept 26, 1994 by Reinhardt Krause

NEW YORK--The PowerPC alliance of Apple Computer, IBM and Motorola is at a critical juncture as Apple Computer licenses its operating system technology (EN, Aug. 8), IBM's Power Personal Systems (PPS) division grapples with its strategy, and Motorola waits for dividends from the "Daytona" version of Windows NT.

With IBM's PPS group having delayed its system rollout until the first half of

1995--when more native applications are available and, not coincidentally, the more powerful PowerPC 604 is expected to be in volume production--there were signs of a ripple effect among companies wooed by the PowerPC alliance.

One member of the Taiwan PowerPC consortium, Tatung, last week said it will also wait until OS/2 is ported to the PowerPC before shipping its systems. Intelligent Computers and Technologies, a small Fremont, Calif.-based system vendor so far rumored as a PowerPC adoptee, also said it will delay announcing any PowerPC-based systems until next year because of a lack of software.

While IBM last week said it was aware of some possible fallout from its delayed shipments, a spokesperson said "We based our decision on customer requirements and feedback as well as our sense of how to best have a successful announcement."

Meanwhile, Motorola last week showed for the first time its PowerPC Reference Platform, running on Windows NT 3.5 (Daytona), at Windows World in Dallas, Tex. While Motorola showcased a range of applications ported to the PowerPC platform, Digital Equipment Corp. and MIPS Technologies have a big lead in the number of native Windows NT applications already shipping on their RISC platforms.

In addition, the PowerPC alliance has yet to release any Windows NT benchmarks comparing performance to Alpha or Mipsbased platforms. Previous Windows NT demonstrations on PowerPC systems have been relatively unimpressive, industry observers have said.

The PowerPC platform will ultimately run operating systems including Sun's Solaris, IBM's AIX, Windows NT, OS/2 and others, but it was the current lack of native applications supporting the processor architecture which led to IBM to delay its product introductions. IBM last week said it will still ship "hundreds of development systems this fall on a special bid basis to selective customers."

The beta version of OS/2 for PowerPC will be ready by the end of this year, said IBM, which is trying to recruit additional ISVs. Industry sources said that long-range IBM is still hoping to benefit from Microsoft's delay in shipping "Chicago", or Windows '95. IBM again denied rumors it has talked to Microsoft about porting the x86-oriented, 32-bit Windows 95 to the PowerPC, or implementing the Windows 95 application programming interface (API) in OS/2.

IBM, though, may be still pursuing software or hardware emulation strategies. IBM is also readying OS/2 3.0, code-named Warp, but still needs native applications from ISVs.

By the time IBM's PPS group does announce its PowerPC-based systems, the PowerPC 604 is expected to be ramped up. IBM and Motorola have claimed that by 4Q this year the PowerPC 604 will be in volume production. At 100 MHz, it has double the integer performance of the 80MHz 601 processor and 50 percent better in floating point capability.

The PowerPC 604 may enable IBM to roll out systems with integrated voice recognition, video conferencing and multimedia applications. The Power Series is said to include desktop systems, ergonomic desktop systems, and portables.

Meanwhile, Apple took center stage when it finally confirmed its licensing plans for the Mac operating system. Curiously, Apple's confirmation of its licensing plans came the same afternoon that IBM's PPS group said it would delay its system introduction.

Apple may not begin revealing its partners until later this year but speculation (EN, Aug. 8) has focused on Europe's Olivetti and Vobis, Japan's Toshiba and Fujitsu, and Taiwan's Acer. Other companies in the Taiwan PowerPC Consortium, such as Tatung, have expressed an interest in licensing the Mac operating system but that may not be a fit with Apple's plans.

Under Apple's business model, the licensees would offer new technical capabilities or distribution channels. Apple is projecting that it can hold onto about 13 percent of the worldwide PC market within the next three years, while clones will add an additional 3 to 4 percent over the same period.

Apple has just released the latest version of its operating system, System 7.5, and introduced a new logo last week for Mac compatibility. In addition to its core Mac OS, Apple will license elements of its PowerPC RISC-based hardware architecture.

Apple also indicated it will work toward a common PowerPC reference platform with IBM--however, there may not be a convergence between IBM's PowerPC reference platform and the PowerMac design for another two to three years.

One Motorola official recently said that developing a common platform was a challenge "because basically you have to build a Mac." However, IBM's manager of the PowerPC reference platfrom, David C. Tjon, recently said the major technical issues have been resolved (EN, Aug. 8). He also identified several areas in the IBM reference platform where changes had been made to accommodate Apple's hardware and OS.