Wave Systems Corp. (fka WAVXQ)

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Wow! IBM and Apple....oops, its OT...

Apple To Use Multi-OS Chip in Future Macs, IBM Reveals
, 12.22.04, 3:36 PM ET

The Mac Observer

Apple Computer will use a new PowerPC 970 processor in future Macs that will run multiple operating systems simultaneously, an executive of IBM's server technology division has revealed. Development of the new processor is close to being finished and will ship sometime in 2005, the company said.

Karl Freund, vice president of IBM eServer pSeries, told CNET News.com in an interview on Tuesday that its next generation PowerPC 970 chips, closely developed with Apple Computer, will use 'partitioning' technology known as virtualization. The virtualization technology, which has existed on mainframes for years, is a combination of software and hardware technologies that allow enterprises to run as many as ten 'virtual' servers on a single microprocessor.

Mr. Fruend said the goal is to incorporate virtualization technology into all its PowerPC processors.

But don't look for this new technology to appear in a Mac for some time. Currently, the technology is only available in certain models of IBMs blade servers and following testing and manufacturing, it would be at least another year or more before an Apple server product uses the technology, industry experts say.

At present, Apple uses the PowerPC 970FX in its desktop and server computers.

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