Agreement called major step in computer's evolution.A recent series of agreements between Apple, IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) and Motorola is being touted as a major step in the evolution of the computer. Under five agreements signed late last fall, the three companies will jointly develop PowerPC microprocessors for use in low-cost RISC RISC in full Reduced Instruction Set Computing Computer architecture that uses a limited number of instructions. RISC became popular in microprocessors in the 1980s. (Reduced Instruction Set Computing Noun 1. reduced instruction set computing - (computer science) a kind of computer architecture that has a relatively small set of computer instructions that it can perform reduced instruction set computer, RISC ) systems, an open-systems operating platform, object-oriented software, multimedia technologies and Apple to IBM systems networking. "We like to think of it as a marriage where everybody wins," notes IBM spokesman Stan Didzbalis. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Didzbalis, the agreements give his company an opportunity to take advantage of Apple's expertise in desktop publishing desktop publishing, system for producing printed materials that consists of a personal computer or computer workstation, a high-resolution printer (usually a laser printer), and a computer program that allows the user to select from a variety of type fonts and sizes, and user-friendly programs. Apple benefits with increased access to the business computer market. PowerPC microprocessors, which reduce the number of instructions required to carry out a single command, will be incorporated into Apple's Macintosh computers and into IBM's workstations and servers. IBM will manufacture the chips for its own use, while Motorola will manufacture the chips for Apple and will market the chips to other companies. PowerPC is the hardware portion of what the three companies call PowerOpen - a system which will allow Apple and IBM applications to be used on PowerPCs. PowerPC products are expected to hit the market in two or three years. They will give Macintosh PC users access to IBM mainframe IBM mainframes, though perceived as synonymous with mainframe computers in general due to their marketshare, are now technically and specifically IBM's line of business computers that can all trace their design evolution to the IBM System/360. and PC networks. To make this possible Apple has licensed Token-Ring from IBM, while IBM has licensed the source code for AppleTalk protocols. "The advantage is that new technology will complement current products rather than exclude them," says Julian Daniel of North Star Computers in Sudbury. However, Daniel admits that not everyone will be happy with the new arrangement. "(IBM) Clones are dead in the water," he says. Daniel says exiting IBM clones will not be able to use the new technology and resulting programming. He expects to see the owners of clone clone, group of organisms, all of which are descended from a single individual through asexual reproduction, as in a pure cell culture of bacteria. Except for changes in the hereditary material that come about by mutation, all members of a clone are genetically computers switch to Apple or IBM systems when they realize that they cannot take advantage of the new technology. "It's definitely going to give clones a run for their money," says Didzbalis. However, he believes the clone producers will hold on to their primary market - the stand-alone PC A desktop or laptop computer that is not permanently connected to a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN). Throughout the 1990s, millions of stand-alone PCs were networked in offices, but it is no longer uncommon to find computers networked in the home so that family . PROGRAMMING Apple and IBM will form a joint-venture company to develop object-oriented software. Daniel says Apple has utilized this type of programming since Macintosh computers were first introduced. "It's not a new technology. It's just something the rest of the industry has not done much with," he explains. Object-oriented programming object-oriented programming, a modular approach to computer program (software) design. Each module, or object, combines data and procedures (sequences of instructions) that act on the data; in traditional, or procedural, programming the data are separated from the is more readily upgraded or expanded than the procedural-based programming used by most of the computer industry. That is because the data is put into modules which can be combined or interchanged. Didzbalis says the Apple-IBM agreement will "make it (object-oriented programming) more mainstream and will allow the application to be expanded." The agreement is expected to reduce the cost and time for developing programs and improve the quality of the applications. |
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