Somerset Goes to Motorola
Staff -- Semiconductor International, 8/1/1998
Motorola (Austin, Texas) and IBM (Hopewell Junction, N.Y.) announced that the
Somerset PowerPC microprocessor design center located in Austin, Texas will
transition from joint ownership to becoming completely owned by Motorola. Both
companies will continue to cooperate closely on the PowerPC architecture while
expanding their respective design capabilities. The companies also intend to
leverage their individual design activities to compete for desktop microprocessor
opportunities at Apple Computer (Cupertino, Calif.).
Last September, the two companies announced they would jointly develop an embedded PowerPC microprocessor initiative. This will continue under the direction of a joint architectural review board, which will ensure architecture compatibility between the two companies' microprocessors.
Motorola plans to expand the market for its PowerPC offerings to include networking, switching, transmission infrastructure, consumer, imaging and transportation. IBM will continue to focus on developing high-end PowerPC microprocessors for its server products, as well as microprocessors for embedded controller applications.
The Somerset facility opened in 1992 and has been jointly funded and staffed to support the development of products based on the PowerPC architecture. Motorola will offer jobs to current IBM employees at Somerset, and Motorola intends to increase staffing levels at the facility.
