Best-selling Author Assesses the Promise of the PowerPC

Gulf Breeze, FL -- In The PowerPC Revolution! best-selling author Jim
Hoskins documents the introduction by Apple, IBM, and Motorola of the new
PowerPC family of microprocessors, one of the most important and
far-reaching developments in the history of personal computers. Hoskins
presents the historical, technical, and business dimensions of the PowerPC
breakthrough in a well-organized, fully illustrated, and easy-to-read
volume that will help technicians and laypeople alike plot their course in
the new age of the PowerPC.

In October 1991, Apple, IBM, and Motorola joined forces to develop the
PowerPC family of microprocessors based on the RISC reduced instruction
set computing architecture, launching what Hoskins considers "the first
credible assault on the dominance of Intel-based hardware and software in
personal computers." (The chips of both Intel and Motorola, which remain
dominant because of their use, respectively, in IBM PCs and clones and in
Apple Computer's popular Macintosh systems, are based on CISC complex
instruction set computing architectures.)

The Power PC Revolution! briefly traces the history of the personal
computer and the evolution of the Apple/IBM/Motorola alliance. As Hoskins
points out, while each partner seeks to harness the improved performance
of the RISC architecture to such applications as text-to-speech, speech
recognition, multimedia, and teleconferencing, they have different
strategies for doing so. IBM will launch a line of personal computers to
compete head-on with Intel-based machines but will nonetheless continue to
make Intel-based personal computers. Apple, on the other hand, has "bet
its entire personal computer business on the PowerPC chips," says
Hoskins.

The PowerPC Revolution! provides a detailed analysis of the
characteristics, capabilities, and performance of the PowerPC architecture
and of the first four PowerPC microprocessors: PowerPC 601; PowerPC 603;
PowerPC 604; and PowerPC 620. Hoskins provides a step-by-step description
of how the PowerPC chips function, using block diagrams, clear
illustrations, and concise definitions.

A section on "The PowerPC and Software" reviews how the PowerPC alliance
has addressed the issue of how to make the RISC systems compatible with
widely used software and explores the limitations of their strategy to
emulate existing applications. Hoskins reviews the PowerOpen Environment,
an attempt to create a UNIX-based software specification based on the
PowerPC architecture.

The last three sections of the report outline what each partner in the
alliance brought to the project and what each sought to gain from it,
reviewing the existing product lines and often surprising business
strategies of the three companies. Hoskins offers forecasts and previews
forthcoming PowerPC products, including IBM's PowerPC Personal Systems
line and Apple's new Power Macintosh family. IBM, Apple, and Motorola each
reviewed the report for technical accuracy.

About the Author... Jim Hoskins, President of Maximum Press, is author of
the best-selling Business Perspective series, which cover IBM's four
primary product lines: Personal Systems; AS/400; RISC System/6000; and
ES/9000, which have sold over 200,000 copies worldwide and have been
published in eleven foreign languages. During a ten-year career at IBM, he
was a design engineer and a member of the original development team for
the Personal System/2.

About Maximum Press... Maximum Press specializes in publishing books that
help businesses reduce the risks associated with selecting and applying
computer technology to solve business problems. Written by technical
experts in a well-organized and easy-to-read format, Maximum Press books
take non-technical readers through a step-by-step evaluation of hardware
and software in order to help them make intelligent computer purchasing
decisions. The timely and fully illustrated MaxFacts series examines the
hottest IBM products and technological issues. Maximum Press (originally
H-Tech), was founded in 1985 by Jim Hoskins.

The Power PC Revolution! by Jim Hoskins

MaxFacts Special Report. 51 pages. 8" x 11 inches. ISBN 0-9633214-9-8. Pub.
date August 15, 1994. $26.95 plus shipping ($3 for United States; $5 for
Canada). Add state and local sales tax in FL and TN.

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