Cambridge, UK-based Tadpole Technology Plc is to develop and manufacture a notebook computer for IBM Corp using the PowerPC RISC under an agreement the two signed on November 24. The company is also planning a full listing for its shares, which used to be traded on the Third Market until that disappeared. IBM is to market the notebook – due in 12 to 18 months – under its own name: details of the partnership will be revealed today. Orginally a manufacturer of board-level products, Tadpole is now best known for its Sparcbook notebook which uses the Sun Microsystems Inc RISC. Big question is which operating system will be pre-loaded: will it be a version of AIX Unix or the RISC version of Macintosh System, which IBM will have rights to market?
