(See "Intel, AT&T, and AMD Continue the Chase," December 1993 BYTE, page 28.)
In 1993 the computer industry had high hopes for the PDA (personal digital assistant) market, and several companies sought to establish its chip platform as the industry standard, including San Jose, CA-based VLSI Technology. In a joint venture with Intel, VLSI designed the Polar chip set. But the PDA market never blossomed, and, like other PDA casualties Eo, PenPoint, and AT&T's Hobbit chip set, the Polar project was dropped. "We dissolved the agreement with Intel last summer because the PDA market had not taken off," says Linda Prosser, VLSI's vice president of communications.
Because Microsoft didn't deliver its Winpad software (the software engine for the Polar chip set), c
ustomers who had planned to produce Polar-based devices were unable to bring those devices to market. However, VLSI is still active in the PDA market, producing the ARM processor that's used in Apple's Newton and in Motorola's Marco PDAs.
Flexible C++
Matthew Wilson
My approach to software engineering is far more pragmatic than it
is
theoretical--and no language better exemplifies this than C++.
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