IBM Corp has finally unveiled its design for a motherboard based upon the long-gestating PowerPC Platform specification, formerly the Common Hardware Reference Platform, which it will license to vendors building computers using PowerPC 603e, 604, 604e and future versions of the RISC which can boot AIX, Mac OS and Windows NT. The design, called Long Trail, is described as the flagship offering of Apple, IBM and Motorola’s effort to enable the PowerPC marketplace and stipulates the use of VLSI Technology Inc logic chips and FirmWorks’ Power firmware boot software. Too little too late is how observers described Long Trail, which comes more than a year after the PowerPC Platform spec finally united the original PowerPC Reference Platform (PReP) with Apple Macintosh. IBM says a new Mac OS technical support office it’s opening in Tapei, Taiwan, is evidence that it’s still serious about growing the Mac OS marketplace. It will open similar support centers in California and Europe.
