IBM Corp is not commenting on a piece in this month’s Midrange Systems magazine that speculates that IBM’s 64-bit PowerPC effort is ahead of schedule. The paper quotes unnamed sources at IBM Rochester – home of the AS/400 business computer – saying that the variant of the PowerPC 620 that will be used in the RISC-based models of the AS/400 is already past the first silicon stage and has the OS/400 operating system up and running. Another variant of the 620, destined to appear in a System/36 lookalike, is said to have reached a similar stage. The 620 is generally expected to begin sampling this autumn, with volume production following in the summer of 1995. There is no evidence that the 620 has reached first silicon yet, but the paper surmises that the progress of the variant bodes well.
