After June 1, any machine wanting to call itself PowerPC Reference Platform compliant will need to support the Open Firmware standard IEEE 1275-1994. But neither the IBM Corp nor the Motorola Inc development kits contain Open Firmware code, furthermore nor do Motorola’s shipping PowerStacks or IBM’s only PowerPC Reference Platform machine, the RS/6000 40P. Also, the firms are still being fuzzy about whether they will have the drivers on board by the time the deadline hits. It is possible, therefore, that these main proponents of the PowerPC Reference Platform may end up shipping machines that are technically not compliant. Open Firmware is a standardised evolution of the Open Boot technology devised originally by Sun Microsystems Inc: its task, quite simply, is to ensure cross-system compatibility for add-onboards. The idea is that a machine that supports Open Firmware would be able to accept any board that supported the standard. It would not matter what type of processor the machine had, it would not matter what operating system it ran. The potential benefits are easy to see: a big unified market for add-on board manufacturers, a big pool of add-on boards for the machine makers. Gordon Stubberfield, with the Motorola Computer Group in the UK said the company is still investigating the Open Firmware issue, although the intention is to support it at some stage. Initially we are looking at a post-boot load of the software, he said. Unfortunately, this would mean that devices involved in the boot process, such as external disk drives could not be used. Asked whether this meant that PowerStacks could become non-PowerPC Reference Platform-compliant next summer he acknowledged to some extent that is the case. Motorola US said that Open Firmware’s incorporation into its developers’ kits was dependent on IBM’s actions, but could not say why exactly. IBM’s initial reaction, when asked whether its development kits would incorporate OpenFirmware was to argue that the standard was still incomplete. But since the Institute of Electrical & Electronic Engineers has awarded it a finished standard, and Menlo Park, California-based FirePower Systems Inc has successfully built it into its boxes, this seems unlikely. Engineers at specialist software developer FirmWorks Inc say that the standard is stable, but are concerned that the Open Firmware requirement may get quietly swept under the carpet. As we went to press IBM was still pondering its final thoughts on the matter.
