IBM Corp is to accompany the launch of its PowerPC-based Power Series personal computers with eight new PowerPC-based RS/6000 models, US PC Week hears. It is expected to turn up with five workstations and three servers, all using the hard-to-obtain PowerPC 604 chip clocked at 100MHz, 120MHz or 133MHz; they will run AIX 4.1.3 and the Windows NT version for PowerPC, enabling them to work with the Personal Computer Power Series machines as clients; all are expected on June 19. The only operating systems available for the desktops will embarrassingly be NT and AIX – the full-featured beta release of OS/2 for PowerPC is not expected to be ready until late June or early July. In the RS/6000 line there are expected to be five workstations, three entry-level models that outperform the 66MHz 601-based Model 40P, and two mid-range models to succeed the 80MHz 601-based Models 25W and 41W. All are said to include AT and Peripheral Component Interconnect slots and a faster graphics adaptor. The three RS/6000 servers are expected to include an entry-level uniprocessor model C20, succeeding the 80MHz 601-based C10, and two symmetric multiprocessing models in the J series, which can take as many as six or eight PowerPC 604s.Intriguingly, one source told the paper that a PowerPC-based server expected from the PC Server division late this year or early in 1996 will use the PowerPC 615, the shadowy chip that runs iAPX-86 code – but while that capability might prove interesting on the desktop, it is hard to see the benefit on a se rver since there are native NetWare and NT for PowerPC.
