Power Computing Corporation, t, and Jean-Louis Gasse's Be, Incorporated, today announced that beginning in the first quarter of 1997, all Power Computing systems will ship with the Be Operating System (BeOS) in addition to the Macintosh Operating System.

The BeOS will provide Power Computing's customers with a powerful and rich tool that accommodates a growing number of cutting-edge multimedia and communications-based applications without forcing users to make additional hardware investments. The BeOS offers advanced features such as high-peformance, symmetric multiprocessing, preemptive multitasking, multithreading as well as object-oriented design.

The BeOS was first demonstrated publicly as a technology on a Power Computing system at Macworld Boston in August, 1996.

"Power Computing has earned a strong reputation by providing leading-edge PowerPC systems to meet the needs of today's growing digital media market," said Steve Kahng, chairman and CEO of Power Computing. "With the addition of the BeOS to our offering, Power Computing customers will now have the option of utilizing the remarkable power and performance of the BeOS along with Power Computing's already world-class systems."

"Power Computing is an ideal partner because we are after customers that are pushing the envelope in media and content creation and Power Computing is the company that is pushing the envelope in PowerPC system design" said Jean-Louis Gassee, CEO of Be, Inc. "Power Computing has moved to the forefront of the PowerPC system space, and were excited to work with them."

As part of the agreement announced today, the two companies will work together to ensure that the BeOS will run on all Power systems, including PowerTower Pro, PowerTower, PowerCenter and PowerBase systems. The BeOS will be bundled at no additonal charge for customers purchasing Power Computing systems and will come on a bootable CD-ROM. While contract specifics were not announced today, both companies indicated that specifics including available applications and utilities would be announced formally at the upcoming Macworld Expo San Francisco in January, 1997.

Power Computing will make the BeOS available at no charge to customers ordering and receiving systems between now and the date of first ship of the BeOS. Existing Power Computing customers will be able to purchase the BeOS directly from Be's worldwide website.

The companies added that the announcement should serve as a clear signal to the software development community that there will be a large and growing number of BeOS seats starting in the first quarter of 1997. In addition, both Kahng and Gassee indicated that they are enthused about both the quality and number of software developers currently in the process of porting and writing new and existing applications to the BeOS on the PowerPC MacOS platform.

Return to today's headlines

Copyright 1997 - 2008
GVP.DSJ Inc Web Development & GetMeOnTop SEO & Search Optimization NYC