BE ANNOUNCES BeOS SUPPORT FOR NEW
MULTIPROCESSOR POWERPC SYSTEMS
Macworld demonstrations on single and dual processor
systems up to 300MHz.
MACWORLD EXPO, SAN FRANCISCO, Calif (January 7, 1997) – At Macworld
Expo today, Be announced and demonstrated its support of new
high-speed PowerPC microprocessors introduced by IBM, and high-speed
multiprocessor and single processor systems PowerPC systems introduced
by Power Computing. In addition, the company demonstrated Be
Operating System (BeOS(tm)) support for DayStar’s multiprocessor
products, which are used in systems by DayStar, Apple Computer, and
SuperMac.
Many of the new systems announced at Macworld make use of new PowerPC
microprocessors introduced by IBM. Power Computing demonstrated for
thefirst time a single processor PowerPC 603 system operating at
300 MHz. Power also introduced multiprocessor systems based on dual
PowerPC 604s running at either 225 MHz or 250 MHz, the fastest
604-based designs yet produced.
Be will include support for these systems in the next release of the
BeOS. In a separate announcement this week, the company confirmed
this release will ship as scheduled in the first quarter.
“There has always been a chicken-and-egg problem for multiprocessor
systems – there was no software that took advantage of multiple
processors, and thus little demand for hardware, and thus little
demand for MP software.” said Jean-Louis Gasse, president and CEO of
)Be, Inc. “The BeOS represents a new generation of software designed
specifically for multiprocessor systems, delivering that power to
users and developers. 1997 will be the year in which MP systems take
over the high end, and they’ll continue to spread from there.”
The BeOS was designed from the beginning to support multiple
processors in a single system, a feature known as multiprocessing. The
design of the BeOS goes further, however, in that the operating
system – and the applications written for it – make heavy use of
multithreading – breaking down complex operations at all levels of the
OS into smaller operations which can be executed in parallel. The
result is a personal computer platform which takes maximum advantage
of every microprocessor in the computer, and provides much higher
performance than systems based on even the highest speed single
processors.
“Most of the work in supporting these new MP systems lies in the
hardware abstraction layer of the BeOS. Once we understand the
hardware implementation, providing BeOS support is straightforward.,”
said Bob Herold, engineering lead for new system support at Be.
At Macworld Expo, being held January 7-10 in San Francisco, Be is
demonstrating the BeOS on the following new systems;
— PowerComputing Dual PowerPC 604 @ 250 MHz
Demonstrated by PowerComputing, this system includes the highest
performing PowerPC microprocessor yet produced. In addition, Be
demonstrated the BeOS running on Power’s dual 604 systems running at
225 MHz. Both these systems, when available, will include the BeOS
bundled with the product.
— DayStar Dual PowerPC Support
Be also demonstrated support for DayStar’s dual PowerPC 604 processor
cards, used in systems built by DayStar, Apple Computer, and
SuperMac/UMAX. Currently the DayStar implementation runs at 180, 200
and 225 MHz. Be also stated that it will support DayStar’s four
processor systems, and both dual and quad processor support will be
included in the Q1 release of the BeOS.
— PowerComputing PowerPC 603 @ 300 MHz
Shown for the first time at Macworld by Power Computing and IBM, this
is the fastest implementation of the PowerPC 603 yet demonstrated.
These systems will include the BeOS bundled when they become
available.
The demonstrations of the BeOS running on the new systems can be seen
during Macworld Expo at the Be company booth in the south hall, and at
the Power Computing booth in the north hall. In addition, BeOS
systems can be seen at IBM’s, Metrowerk’s, and ATI’s booths.
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About Be, Inc.
Be, Inc. was founded by Jean-Louis Gasse in 1990 to overcome the
limitations of existing computer architectures. With a team of
industry-leading engineers and business executives in the United
States and Europe, the company has positioned itself to become a key
player in fast-growing application markets. Be, Inc. is headquartered
in Menlo Park, California.
Corporate Offices:
Be, Inc.
800 El Camino Real, Suite 300
Menlo Park, California 94025
Tel: (415) 462-4100
Fax: (415) 462-4129
Internet: http://www.be.com
e-mail: info@be.com
FTP site: ftp://ftp.be.com
European Offices:
Be, Inc.
Suite 336, Immeuble Olivetti
Rue de l’ancien march
92800 Puteaux
France
Tel: (33) 1 49 06 73 77
Fax: (33) 1 49 06 73 79
Internet: http://www.beeurope.com
e-mail: infobe@beeurope.com
Copyright 1997 Be, Inc. Be is a registered trademark, and the Be
logo, the BeOS logo, BeBox, BeOS, BWare and GeekPort are trademarks of
Be, Inc. All other trademarks mentioned belong to their respective
owners.