IBM Corp, Apple Computer Inc and Motorola Inc duly announced that they had agreed on a new common PowerPC system design, but few details were available at press time, although it is expected that each will design one support chip for the new architecture; they say that prototypes of the first systems designed to the new specifications should be ready next year although the computers won’t be ready until 1996; each company will take technical and financial responsibility for writing the version of its operating system to run on the new hardware architecture, and the development casts further doubt on when IBM will be able to get off the ground with its own Power Personals, since with machines designed to the new standard on the way, no-one will want incompatible ones – and it also puts a question mark over Motorola’s first pass at PowerPC machines, launched last month.
