Making it clear that IBM Corp is not convinced that its alliance with Apple Computer Inc is the whole solution to its problems on the desktop, the company yesterday joined Intel Corp to announce the formation of an equally-owned joint venture – the Robert N Noyce Development Center – staffed by 100 people in Boca Raton, Florida to design more highly integrated versions of the 80486 and succeeding microprocessors, with graphics controller and internal communications controller with the CPU+cache+floating point processor 80486 core, bringing most of the logic of an 80486-based PS/2 down to a single chip. Both companies will have the right to make chips that result from the joint venture but only Intel will be free to market them to third parties – and only after IBM has had a four-month lead in designing them into its own products. The agreement also gives IBM the right to manufacture future versions of Intel’s iAPX-86 line – the 80586 and follow-ons – for use in IBM computers for the next 10 years – but as before, only a part of its requirement. Also it is not permitted to design proprietary versions of the 80486 and up as it has done with its 386SLC variant of the Intel 80386SX.
