Is Ing C Olivetti & Co SpA about to jump Alpha ship altogether and switch to the PowerPC? As we reported, Carlo de Benedetti said at the International Data Corp conference in Rome last week that Olivetti was now a member of PowerOpen and was developing a PowerPC-based board, but 01 Informatique quotes him as saying that Digital Equipment Corp with its Alpha chip is positioned at the top end of the personal computer market with its Alpha chip, and that is a market in which Olivetti is no longer interested: it also quotes him saying that these days, the company finds the PowerPC architecture more attractive and that Olivetti could soon start supplying PowerPC motherboards OEM to IBM Corp; de Benedetti also said that now DEC had sold its Olivetti shares, Olivetti was not looking for another such shareholder, and would prefer to have a multiplicity of collaborative relationships with others; Olivetti says that the report was all a misunderstanding – but the Italian company is an investor in a PowerPC company and is also now a member of PowerOpen Association.
