Following the white paper from Apple Computer Inc, IBM Corp and Motorola Inc on the Common Hardware Reference Platform (CI No 2,664), FirePower Systems Inc has already begun designing its own support chip-set in an effort to have Common Hardware machines out 90 days after the specification is finalised. The draft had been circulating among a small, select group of companies for a few weeks now, but where the existing PReP standard was a wide, collaborative effort right from the beginning, the new one has been closely controlled by the Big Three. This method of standards creation has caused a small headache for Glen Miranker, vice-president and technical director of FirePower Systems. Previously, he has been quoted in the press as saying that the company would have Common Hardware machines out 90 days after the specifications were completed. Now he says he is less optimistic about making this deadline, since his company is less intimate with the evolution of the standard than he expected. Still, following a recent preliminary view, he says the specification is looking extremely good in my opinion, describing it as an impressive document. Though there is still work to be done, his purely personal guess is that the standard will be well advanced by the end of summer. However, Miranker says the jury is still out on the all-important question of whether the Common Hardware machines will be more expensive to manufacture than FirePower’s existing PReP-compatible line. Firepower’s aggressive timetable is made possible by its decision to design its own Common Hardware support chips, on which work is well advanced. Miranker says that though Firepower doesn’t intend to move into the merchant chip market, it is willing to sell the chips to other companies, as part of a larger package encompassing, say, system boards.
