Responding to our piece on Power Now, the Santa Cruz, California company’s Pentium initiative (CI No 2,129), the Santa Cruz Operation Inc says that it is less important to re-compile the operating system than the applications software, which tends to be more numerically intensive. Santa Cruz is accordingly to offer software developers interested in Pentium an advanced technology release programme that includes an early-release version of the Santa Cruz Optimising C Compiler, designed to generate binaries taking advantage of the forthcoming Intel chip, and also run on the 80486. Santa Cruz also says it believes Intel Corp’s assurances that up to 200,000 Pentium chips will ship this year. Santa Cruz says that run as-is on the Pentium, applications performance will be improved by up to 54%. Recompiled applications will run up to 130% faster on the 66MHz processor. The 80486 applications will run 27% faster when the compiler has been used. Power Now, and the Intel Pentium, are being highlighted at Cebit Fair in Hannover this week.
