Apple Computer Inc has issued a list of 20 vendors that it says are building Peripheral Component Interconnect expansion boards for its next generation Power Macintoshs, which are to be released this year. Denis Precheur, product manager for the Peripheral Component Interconnect transition at Apple says the company requires that third party products that are part of the boot process like graphic boards, network boards and SCSI adaptors, must implement OpenFirmware. The practical upshot of Apple’s announcement will be good news for PowerPC Reference Platform manufacturers – any Peripheral Component Interconnect board that works in a Macintosh should work in a PowerPC Reference Platform- or Common Hardware Reference Platform-compliant machine. From Apple’s point of view, the move to Peripheral Component Interconnect is already attracting a number of board manufacturers from the traditional iAPX-86 personal computer world, who are moving to broaden their horizons. Names on Apple’s list include graphic board manufacturer Diamond MultiMedia Systems Inc, and disk controller specialists Adaptec Inc and QLogic Corp. Even Digital Equipment Corp is in on the act, and is developing FDDI adaptor boards. Apple’s release surprised some of the companies on the list that we contacted, such as ATI Technologies Inc, Farallon Computing Inc, and Digital Communications Associates Inc. All of them said that development was still in the very early stages. Moreover, if they are all using Open Firmware, then saying that the boards are being developed for Apple’s second generation Power Macintosh systems is a little disingenuous – FirePower Systems Inc might as well put out a release saying the boards are all being developed for its PowerPC Reference Platform boxes. Apple’s full list is 4-Sight International Ltd, Asante Technologies Inc, Adaptec Inc, ATI Technologies, ATTO Technology Inc, Avid Technology Inc, Digital Communications Associates Inc, Diamond Multimedia Systems Inc, Digital Equipment Corp, Farallon Computing Inc, FAST Multimedia AG, FWB Inc, Harlequin Ltd, Hermstedt GmbH, Intelligent Resources Integrated Systems Inc, Linotype-Hell AG, Neutral Ltd, Qlogic Corp, Radius Inc and Second Wave Inc.
