The hottest news on the Internet at the moment is the rumour that Compaq, the world's number one maker of computers, may make PowerPC clones. The news was spread at this year's CeBIT computer fair in Hanover last week. Both Compaq and Apple are saying nothing about the deal or any discussions. A call to Compaq in Hong Kong simply got a reply that there was an internal memo from the head quarters in Houston that said to deny everything. Apple in Hong Kong also had nothing to say, although some people were hinting that discussions of some kind were going on with a 'major maker of PC-compatible computers'. At Motorola, Kennith Kin, the vice president and director of the Asia Pacific and Japan operations for the computer group, also said that there was no news. 'I have heard nothing,' he said. Some analysts are saying that Compaq may want to have another source for microprocessors other than Intel. A few years ago Compaq and Intel had a falling out, but all is supposed to be fine now. Compaq could buy the PowerPC chip and put Windows NT on it, if it wanted to. This solution has been mooted before as well. Mr Kin said he thought the PowerPC chip would make a much better basis for business uses than the Pentium from Intel.
