As well as the new company to market Ambra machines in the US (CI No 2,194), IBM Corp is establishing another new personal computer subsidiary specifically to handle high-end machines built around the PowerPC RISC. The Ambra company is not yet announced, but the PowerPC company was unveiled yesterday. It is dedicated to oversee the development, manufacturing and marketing of entry-level systems based on the PowerPC technology, the company said. Observers say the reason for the PowerPC company is that while IBM badly wants to support PowerPC, it doesn’t want to alienate Intel Corp, whose chips power most of its PS/2s, or bad-mouth its technology. Nobuo Mii, a veteran IBM personal computer technology guru, is to run the business. In contrast to the workstation PowerPC products, typically aimed at scientific and technical users, the new subsidiary will use the PowerPC in mainstream personal computers. It is not clear what operating system will be offered, but the betting is that it will be WorkPlace OS, the Carnegie Mellon Mach microkernel configured to take multiple personalities – likely OS/2 and AIX, but also Windows NT.
