At the Cebit computing fair in Hannover towards the end of this month, the Santa Cruz Operation Inc, Santa Cruz, California is expected to launch its Santa Cruz Unix and Intel Corp Pentium combination under the banner Power Now. Does this mean that Santa Cruz has re-compiled its operating system to take full advantage of Pentium’s performance? Not according to our sources at the company. That means that the product has not been optimised for the 80486 or for Pentium, and won’t take account of new Pentium features such as the dual pipeline, or work around some of the clock cycle quirks that emerged in the behaviour of the 80486 post technical documentation. It all sounds as if the compiler technology – an essential element of the Pentium’s claimed performance benefits over the 80486 isn’t quite there yet. Watch this space.
