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AUGUST 14, 1995 / VOLUME 9 NUMBER 32

PPC partners planning follow-ons to 603, 604

615 will boot as PPC, x86 or both

By Robert Hess (robert@ftp.macweek.ziff.com)

Over the course of the next year, IBM Corp. and Motorola Inc. plan to significantly push forward the PowerPC chip line with three new processors, including one designed to be compatible with the Intel x86 standard.

Sources said Motorola plans to start sampling a PowerPC 604e, or "extended," processor in the fourth quarter of this year. Starting at 150 MHz, the new chip will be smaller, cooler and less expensive than the standard 604, thanks to fewer transistors and a smaller die size than its predecessor.

It will also offer a unified cache that is slightly larger than today's 604. This will be good news for Mac owners, since such a cache will help boost performance of Apple's dynamic recompiling 680x0 emulator.

The 604e will be built at Motorola's Austin, Texas, plant, using a 0.35-micron process, sources said.

Motorola will reportedly have chips ready next summer for companies to use in their computers. Sources said that while Apple might be the obvious candidate to deliver the first 604e-based Macs, it is more likely that Power Computing Corp. will be the first to step up to the plate. Apple and Power Computing declined to comment.

A significant problem facing Apple's use of the chip is the inability of current Power Macs to take advantage of any CPU faster than 150 MHz. Sources said Apple will remedy this problem with a new line of Power Macs, code-named Power Surge 2, which will debut late next year with support for speeds of 200 MHz and higher.

While the new 604e chip is targeted squarely at high-performance desktop systems, sources revealed that Motorola also plans to update its mobile RISC line next year.

Code-named Valiant or the 603++, the successor to the 603e is scheduled to ship in notebook and entry-level desktop systems by the end of next year.

Developed with significant input from Apple, Valiant will offer a larger cache than the 603e, while retaining the 603 family's small size, low price and cool operating temperature. It is expected to ship at clock speeds starting at 150 MHz.

Sources said Motorola plans to sample the new processor in the first quarter of next year and ship it by the end of next year.

"[Motorola's] realistic goal is to maintain a 1.7-to-2.0x performance advantage over anything Intel has and at the same price points," one source said.

In related news, sources confirmed that IBM is well under way in its plans to develop the PowerPC 615, which effectively combines a PowerPC and a Pentium in one package. IBM could not be reached for comment.

The chip can be instructed to perform at start-up time as a Pentium, as a PowerPC or as both processors at once. When running as one chip at a time, performance is reportedly that of high-end Pentium and PowerPC 604 processors.

When the chip is running in dual mode, performance is considerably slower; sources said resolving this dual-mode performance hit will keep the chip from shipping sooner than the latter half of 1996.

Because it is pin-compatible with the Intel Pentium, not PowerPC, the 615 can be just "dropped into an Intel-class logic board, which clone vendors will love," one source said.

Apple reportedly has big plans for the 615. It is currently looking into using it in a box conforming to the Common Hardware Reference Platform (CHRP) that it could ship by the end of next year. A Mac that uses the chip in a pre-CHRP design is also reportedly being considered.

Sources said Motorola is looking at the chip but has not decided what part the 615 will play in the company's future.


 

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