jkg@gitpyr.gatech.EDU (Jim Greenlee) (01/18/87)
I just got the February issue of "The Institute" (an IEEE publication) and
it appears that there is move afoot to standardize the architecture of the
IBM PC and compatibles. Quoting from the article:
"In early December the IEEE Standards Board gave the go-ahead for two
projects. One of them - P996 - is to define and publish a technical
specification for the 8- and 16-bit system buses used in IBM PCs and
PC ATs, and to define a 32-bit extension for the bus to accommodate a
new generation of more powerful microprocessors.
"The second group - P1134 - intends to develop a standard for the Basic
Input/Output System (BIOS) for personal computers using Intel's 80286 and
80386 microprocessors."
Any IEEE member interested in participating in either of the working groups
should contact the appropriate group chairperson:
Gary Lyons (P996)
Nestar Systems Inc.
1345 Shorebird Way
Mountain View, CA 94043
or:
Carl Warren (P1134)
Cahners Publishing Co.
18818 Teller Ave., Suite 170
Irvine, CA 92715
Disclaimer: I am not affiliated in any way, shape, or form with either of
these groups, nor do I have anything to do with the design, development, or
marketing of any IBM PC, compatible, or peripheral. I am simply posting this
as a matter of general information, because I am interested in such things
and thought others might be, too.
Jim Greenlee
--
The Shadow...!{akgua,allegra,amd,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo,ut-ngp}!gatech!gitpyr!jkg
Jryy, abj lbh'ir tbar naq qbar vg! Whfg unq gb xrrc svqqyvat jvgu vg hagvy lbh
oebxr vg, qvqa'g lbh?!tes@whuts.UUCP (STERKEL) (01/20/87)
In article <2902@gitpyr.gatech.EDU>, jkg@gitpyr.gatech.EDU (Jim Greenlee) writes: > I just got the February issue of "The Institute" (an IEEE publication) and > it appears that there is move afoot to standardize the architecture of the > IBM PC and compatibles. Quoting from the article: This reminds me of the ill-fated "S-100 Standardization" IEEE performed circa 1981/2. As far as I could tell, standard 696 was almost universally ignored as everyone wanted to claim "S-100" but had little interest in loosing sales of their own add-ons. Then in October?, 1981, IBM trashed the entire standard by introducing their own PC, and the rest is history. Useful "standards" are created and maintained by industry working from economic necessity, not IEEE. The new standards will meet the same fate as S696 unless it is to the *continuing* economic advantage of IBM, Compaq, etc. It will be interesting to watch for heavy IBM senior engineering participation. -- ----- Terry Sterkel -====---- AT&T Bell Laboratories --------- {harvard|allegra|ulysses|ihnp4}!whuts!tes ----- [opinions are obviously only my own]