InformationWeek
Defining The Business Value Of Technology
PowerPC Rumors Debunked
By Brian Gillooly
Issue: Dec. 19, 1994
The hype stirred up by Intel Corp.'s Pentium bug has spread to rival Motorola Inc. and its PowerPC processor. Postings on the Internet claimed that unspecified bugs found in PowerPCs had been "quietly fixed." The notices touched off criticism of Motorola for not publicizing the situation.
But it seems the reaction was premature-and possibly misguided. Phil Pompa, director of marketing for Motorola's PowerPC chip, says there have been no reports of "calculation-error bugs" uncovered by users of its commercial PowerPC chips, the 601 and 603. As with all silicon, he says, a list of errors were published upon the completion of each chip and "nothing, be yond the normal errors, has been found that is user visible or affects performance."
Pompa says he's heard about the Internet postings, but hasn't read them and doesn't know what aspects of the chip's operation they entail. The PowerPC 604, which Motorola began sampling last April, is entering production now and will be available in the first quarter of 1995. The PowerPC 620 is still in early testing. Errors related to those chips could be posted, Pompa says, but it's too early to be concerned. "I don't even track them myself," he says.
'Almost Never Work'
A spokesman for IBM Microelectronics, manufacturer of the PowerPC 601 for Motorola, says word of problems in the PowerPC 604 or 620 is not unusual at this stage. "First devices almost never work," he notes.
But to a chip-buying public already shaken by problems with the Pentium processor, any error reports are clearly worth exploring.
