Apple Computer Inc will launch its first PowerPC-based Macintosh machines running System 7.1 in the first half of 1994 – March is the favoured month. Boxes running a PowerOpen-compliant operating system should follow in the second half – depending on when the PowerOpen specification is released. The first PowerPC 601-based Macintosh systems will be aimed at the mid-range and high-end markets, and existing customers will be able to upgrade their existing Motorola Inc 68000-based machines by simply slotting in a new board. The System 7.1 operating system has been tweaked to exploit the new microprocessor, but will also include code that emulates a 25MHz 68040 chip, so customers can still use the 5,000 or so existing Macintosh applications. While these will run slower than in native mode, Apple has also been working with various third party developers over the past 11 months to help them convert their products for the new hardware. Such applications will run native, and include Microsoft Corp’s Word and Excell, Aldus Corp’s Pagemaker and Adobe Systems Inc’s Illustrator. The firm hopes to have 20 packages available at launch, and another 100 or so within a month. The new boxes will also have speech recognition and multimedia capabilities built in, and Apple reckons they will help it penetrate deeper into the computer-aided design and graphic arts market – of which it already has the lion’s share. The company has been criticised in the past for setting its prices too high, but PowerPC-based Macintoshes should knock the price-performance thing on the head – and, the company hopes, enable it to compete with such vendors as Silicon Graphics Inc. Apple hopes to sell about 1m of these machines within a year. PowerPC-based entry-level desktops, servers and portables should follow in the second half of 1994. The portables will be based on the PowerPC 603, samples of which should start reaching vendors in November or December. But their release will depend on when Motorola – or IBM Corp can ramp up production enough to satisfy Apple’s need for volume – it reckons it will require about 2m 603s per year. The firm will also announce PowerPC-based systems running its own version of the PowerOpen operating system at about the same time – these will be sold in parallel with the System 7.1 machines, as an alternative, not a replacement.
Standards-based box
They are targeted at people looking for a standards-based box, such as traditional Unix users, and at niche scientific markets to which Apple has previously not had access. Such customers will still be able to use their existing specialised applications, running under AIX Unix for example, but will also be able to take advantage of the Apple interface and its personal productivity applications, the group says. Apple will only run PowerOpen on its mid-range and high-end machines, and entry-level servers – it reckons the operating system is too complex for entry level desktop and portable users, who aren’t interested in Unix anyway, preferring Microsoft’s Windows or MS-DOS, and System 7. Apple says the PowerOpen Association is not simply developing PowerOpen application programming interfaces, but is also working on a PowerOpen kernel that vendors will be able to license, and subsequently add value to.
