San Jose-based Exponential Technology Inc admitted that it is working on a variant of the PowerPC processor that would be complementary to anything on the PowerPC roadmap. Beyond that, sales director Ivonne Valdes was a model of restraint, declining to comment on the company’s core activities, who its key staff are, or what the products may be. We are a really exciting company – but not quite yet, she said. The company joins a select band of organisations that have been licensed to build microprocessors to the PowerPC architecture. In addition to IBM Corp, Apple Computer Inc and Motorola Inc, Compagnie des Machines Bull SA, SGS Thomson Microelectronics BV, Hitachi Ltd and Toshiba Corp all have the right to design chips, said IBM. But it is unclear whether these companies will be allowed to offer chips on the merchant market, or whether they are solely for internal consumption. Our sister publication ClieNT Server News has been watching Exponential for a while and believes it is designing silicon for Apple. That would make sense – Apple has the right to do its own thing with PowerPC, but does not have much in the way of silicon design skills. The paper further believes that Motorola was considering fabricating the chips for Exponential, but has backed away. A Motorola source told other sister publication PowerPC News that the company had indeed been engaged in talks with Exponential about something, but that nothing came of them. IBM declined to confirm that Exponential is licensed to design chips. Since PowerPC is an open architecture, we continue to have discussions with a variety of companies about PowerPC licences. Where we see a need or a market opportunity not met by one of the core PowerPC microprocessors, we may explore discussions with a company to enter into some type of relationship to fill that need or seize the opportunity, Ms Valdes said. She added that the world should not expect to see the product of its PowerPC work this year. Meanwhile, diversified military electronics and aerospace group Loral Corp, which makes MilSpec chips, was telling Electronic Times that it will have a radiation-hardened version of the PowerPC this year. The paper quoted business development manager John Bendekovic saying that the company has access to IBM Corp’s cell libraries and expects to be sampling the radiation-resistant parts by November.
