Compaq Computer Corp is believed to have decided on MIPS Computer Systems Inc’s R-series RISC architecture for future generations of high-end workstations – and the tale is lent credibility by the news that Microsoft Corp is planning an architecture-independent version of its forthcoming 32-bit version of Windows 3.0. At the UniForum show in Dallas last week, sources close to Compaq were claiming that four weeks ago, the Houston company had draft contracts in hand for Sun Microsystems Inc’s Sparc chip when MIPS rushed in and upped the ante, offering Compaq a stake of the company and transfers of technology – and it’s now said to be a done deal. A Compaq official, when asked about the status of things, tried to pour cold water on the reports but never could bring himself flatly to deny them. As well as the 32-bit Windows, Microsoft had been talking about a portable version of OS/2 that would run on the MIPS RISC, but that is now believed to have metamorphosed into portable Windows, although the latter is expected to absorb the key elements of the commercially lacklustre OS/2. Microsoft is planning to clarify its new direction today, and according to the Wall Street Journal, IBM was trying over the weekend to persuade Microsoft to put in a good word for Presentation Manager, the graphical user interface that goes with OS/2 and which Microsoft is now close to ab andoning altogether in fav our of top-selling Windows.
