MIPS Computer Systems Inc appears to have managed to shuffle a whole deck of ACEs into its corner. Today at PC Expo in New York, when it trots out its second round of joiners, the list is expected to add another 30- some companies to the initial contingent of 21 made public in April. As we went to press, sources said the list was still expanding and more than 30 firms were expected to pledge themselves to producing a computer compliant with the Advanced Computing Environment, including at least one user of Sun Microsystems Inc’s Sparc, namely Tatung Co, is expected to be in the line-up. Samsung Electronics Inc is also expected to lend its weight to the ACE Initiative and might be considered a Sparcette since it holds an affiliate membership in Sparc International. However, it has not declared publicly that it will build a Sparc machine. What political hay the ACE Initiative will make of these seeming betrayals can only be imagined. Despite rumours to the contrary, Tatung at least is not abandoning its Sparc commitment. The Tatung entity that is joining ACE is not Tatung Science & Technology Inc, the operation that is doing the Sparc machines. According to its president Kam Chan, ACE attempted to recruit him several times and although he is interested, he wants to see its level of success first. Among the more prominent names ACE will pick up this week is Seiko-Epson Co, but reportedly the majority are low-profile companies, many of them based offshore and trading up from their MS-DOS clone origins. ACE has also recruited a few independent software vendors such as Corollary Inc and Banyan Systems Inc, but MIPS has made no conscious push for software companies in the last few months. Those will be pursued later this year when release of the developer’s kit is more imminent. The sincerity of the companies joining ACE is something that will have to be plumbed, and of course the IBM Corp-Wang Laboratories Inc announcement looks like producing the first ACE defector – Wang says it is reviewing the situation but its commitment to IBM’s RS/6000 looks like curtains for its agreements with MIPS. Critics of ACE suggest that many of the companies may have made only a soft commitment, aimed at gathering information in an attempt to sort out who the market maker will really be.
