Compaq Computer Corp’s search for a RISC, a normal exercise repeated by scores of companies before it without incident, has ignited an alliance bent on a power play of possibly epic proportions. The instigator of the industry’s newest league, which currently includes at least MIPS Computer Systems Inc, Compaq, Silicon Graphics Inc, DEC, Microsoft Corp and the Santa Cruz Operation Inc, is said to be Bill Gates, the superstar founder of Microsoft. Sources now credit Gates with personally derailing Compaq’s Christmas-time decision to go with Sun Microsystems Inc’s Sparc chip and adopt instead the silicon on offer from the more malleable MIPS (CI No 1,575). To seal the bargain, MIPS put an offer on the table, understood to include an equity position, that Compaq just couldn’t refuse. This unholy trinity aims to produce a new workstation standard probably using MIPS’ recently announced 64-bit R4000 chip and running portable OS/2 3.0 or NT, the New Technology operating system Microsoft still has in the lab. Sources claim that NT, which is is said to be being written from scratch, owing nothing to either MS-DOS or OS/2, will run both MS-DOS and Unix applications when finished. Santa Cruz Operation, where Microsoft owns a 20% interest, may be involved to add the Unix dimension as well as its operating environment Open Desktop, which will supposedly be made to run on top of both Unix and MS-DOS. Watchers, however, say the decision of whether to re-invent the Unix element or license it from AT&T has yet to be made, and speculate that Santa Cruz Operation could be part of the line-up simply for its marketing channels. DEC, MIPS’ most prestigious design win to date, seems intent on carving out a corner of the low-end, a market that has repeatedly eluded it since the days of the Rainbow, Professional and DECmate fiasco. Meanwhile, other wheelings and dealings may make Ultrix the basis of a new-found binary compatibility capability for the MIPS community (see front). DEC is also expected to bring some of its networking expertise to the coalition, while Silicon Graphics, one of MIPS’ earliest and most successful users, would contribute its graphics library. Representatives of the companies, whose dealings are all still very hush-hush and fragile, are believed to have met in California at least three times since the new year, most recently last week. The allies are also said to be approaching second-tier firms seeking converts to their cause. Ing C Olivetti & Co SpA, which followed Compaq into the original Gang of Nine that set the EISA bus standard, and again into investment in NexGen Systems Inc, is believed to be among those heeding the call, as is Sony Corp, which recently brought out a MIPS-based portable and is having trouble establishing itself in workstations, and NEC Corp, a MIPS second source. The move is perceived as a strike against Intel Corp, the dominant chip maker whose systems aspirations frighten companies like Compaq. It also gives the power-hungry Mr Gates, whose reach has yet to exceed his grasp, a fresh handle on Unix, whose siren song harbours a long-term threat to his MS-DOS empire. It also enables Gates to settle a few old scores with IBM which along with Hewlett-Packard Co would be effectively isolated by the coalition and could pose a serious challenge to workstation leader Sun Microsystems. – Maureen O’Gara
