Motorola signs unique licensing deal; Power Computing promises fastest systems ever.
Shelly Brisbin
Clone Watch
FASTER, MORE AFFORDABLE clones are in your future, say Apple, Motorola, and sources close to Power Computing: Motorola has become the latest Mac OS licensee and the first to be allowed by Apple to itself license the Mac OS, with motherboards and subsystems, to other manufacturers; Power Computing will be the first clone vendor to offer systems based on 166-MHz and 180-MHz PowerPC 604s -- thus rocketing past Apple, which has yet to offer even a 150-MHz desktop system.
Despite the licensing agreement, you won't find Motorola-brand desktop systems at your local computer store: Motorola plans to concentrate instead on its own "enterprise systems," offered directly to major corporate customers. And although Motorola hasn't ruled out models based on current Mac systems, expect it to focus on the upcoming multi-OS-capable PowerPC Platform.
However, your next Mac just might come with a "Motorola Inside" sticker: Motorola plans to provide components as well as full systems to third-party vendors, who can configure them as they wish and offer them for sale under their own brands -- but only after certification from Apple.
Whoever those vendors are -- rumors abound about big-name possibilities -- they'll have to contend with the fact that Power will have a big jump on them, especially when its 166- and 180-MHz systems appear this spring. These speedsters won't be based on Power's high-end PowerWave systems but on its lower-end PowerCurve models, because the maximum clock speed of the processor bus on the PowerWave motherboard, which is based on the same Tsunami architecture as Apple's 9500 motherboard, is 50 MHz. Today's PowerPC 604 chips cannot run faster than three times the bus speed -- in this case, 150 MHz. Later this year, the new 604ev processor, which can run at four times the speed of the bus to which it's connected, will be released; Apple will then be able to push the 9500 to 200 MHz.
PowerCurve systems, on the other hand, are based on Apple's Catalyst architecture, which Apple uses in the 7200. Unlike in the Tsunami/9500/PowerWave design, the processor bus on a Catalyst/7200/PowerCurve system can be pushed to 66 MHz, enabling the system to support 166- and 180-MHz microprocessors.
