Meanwhile the PowerOpen Association Inc unveiled itself with five sponsor members – Apple Computer Inc, Compagnie des Machines Bull SA, IBM Corp, Motorola Inc and Thomson-CSF SA spending an initial $750,000 and annual $250,000 to fund the Billerica, Massachusetts-based outfit. Harris Corp and Tadpole Technology Plc are Principal members, spending a lesser $150,000 per annum. DEC veteran Dominic LaCava is president, and a further eight to 12 staff should come on board this year. Sponsor members get a vote on the board and on all committees and working groups, principal members get representation on the board and committees, with one vote on all working groups. Associate membership costs $100, and is mainly aimed at software developers, 40 of which endorsed the effort. PowerOpen will publish an Application Binary Interface – based on IBM’s AIX this summer, along with test and verification software for both system vendors and application developers. The aim is to create a single binary standard for software running on PowerPC systems. At least one multi-million unit company is said to have signed up for PowerPC, and should reveal itself within two months, PowerOpen said.
