Reliable sources say that IBM Corp and Motorola Inc will unveil their first joint embedded processor, dubbed the PowerPC 602, this month at the International Solid State Circuits Conference. The processor, which is 32-bit internally, with a 64-bit data bus, is the same part that 3DO Co will be using in its games machines. At the time, IBM and Motorola made a lot of noise about 3DO’s close involvement with the chip’s design, but now it seems the 602’s history pre-dates 3DO’s involvement. Sources say the processor will be aimed at the personal digital assistant market, as well as games boxes. It will be interesting to see how the two firms market the product, since they will both have to position it against their own in-house PowerPC embedded processors. The 602 is tipped to include a floating point unit, which would complement nicely IBM’s floating point unit-less offering.
