Already armed with the industry’s fastest laptops, Apple Computer Inc will put even more muscle behind its new-found high-tech image on Tuesday week when de facto CEO Steve Jobs shows off a Macintosh using a 400MHz prototype of IBM Corp’s CMOS7S copper PowerPC 750 chip. How it performs depends upon what Apple engineers have done at a system level to support the 0.2 micron CPU. IBM showed the prototype running at 480MHz last month (CI No 3,341), claiming it delivered 20% better performance than the CMOS6S 750 device. IBM says the prototype could be pushed to speeds of 1GHz or more. Jobs’ technology demo will give further impetus to Apple’s new Toasted Bunny ad campaign in which an overheated Intel Corp ‘bunnyman’ catches fire. The copper CMOS 7S process enables smaller and faster devices to be integrated on to the wafer. IBM has already said it will ship servers with copper chips late this year or early next with workstations to follow. Copper ASICs are due January 1999. IBM’s PowerPC partner Motorola Inc is working on a similar copper implementation of the PowerPC chip. IBM and Motorola will this week debut 300MHz versions of their PowerPC 750 for Macs. Apple’s got former inventory and procurement specialist, Compaq VP Timothy Cook on board as SVP worldwide operations. He also becomes a member of Apple’s executive team. Cook was formerly at IBM handling PC manufacturing and distribution in America.