POWERHOUSE SYSTEMS FORMED TO PROVIDE PowerPC-BASED SYSTEMS TO MAJOR OEM
SUPPLIERS

Products, Based on PowerPC Reference Platform, Will Be First Operating
System-Independent Computers

MENLO PARK, Calif., Mar. 1, 1994 -- The first company dedicated to
providing the industry's leading computer suppliers with systems based on
the IBM/Motorola/Apple-developed PowerPC microprocessor and the PowerPC
Reference Platform specification has been launched as one of Silicon
Valley's newest startups.

PowerHouse Systems, Inc., was formed in August 1993 as a partnership
between former NeXT Computer, Inc. technology executives and Canon, Inc.,
of Japan. Canon is the initial funding partner and holds majority
ownership. Additional funding partners may be sought for private financing
prior to a future public offering.

The first PowerHouse products, a family of desktop systems priced from
$3,000 to $6,000 and offering performance of 80 to 280 SPECmarks, are
scheduled to be brought to market in early 1995. Compliance with the
PowerPC Reference Platform, an open specification for PowerPC systems,
will mean the systems are operating system-independent, able to run
Microsoft Windows NT, IBM's Workplace OS and AIX, SunSoft's Solaris,
Taligent and others.

'Design Partner' to Selected System Houses

PowerHouse's charter is to function as a "design partner" for computer
system suppliers who will purchase and resell its PowerPC-based products
on an OEM basis. Targeted OEM customers are a select group of major system
companies having established distribution channels, with whom PowerHouse
will work closely in defining products to meet their customers' needs,
designing those products, and managing the manufacturing process.

Jon Rubinstein, PowerHouse chief operating officer and former vice
president and general manager of the NeXT Hardware Division, said, "The
combination of PowerPC and the Reference Platform has opened up a new
market, creating a way for computer companies to break Intel's perceived
'death grip' and innovate without risking incompatibility. Now vendors can
move beyond the decade-old PC design to a new architecture embracing rich
functionality and simple plug-and-play expandability. Most important for
the user, this architecture will support many 'shrink-wrapped' operating
systems, and thus an unprecedented diversity of applications.

A New Business Model: No Sales, Distribution

"PowerHouse represents a new business model based on our recognition of the
market realities of the '90s," Rubinstein added. "New technologies,
expanding markets, shrinking resources and faster development cycles
demand that businesses focus on core competencies and leveraged alliances.
This model will allow our OEM partners to move into new markets without
the high risk of developing products from scratch. We will provide them
with the development, product marketing and manufacturing expertise to
create a new product line or supplement an existing one. They, in turn,
will market, sell and distribute the resulting products through their
established channels."

Harry Kondo, PowerHouse chief executive officer and a director cf Canon,
said, "The PowerHouse engineering team incorporates more design experience
with PowerPC than almost any organization in the industry. Our unique
business model will make it possible for a company facing the design of a
next-generation system to exploit this experience and get to market
quickly with advanced, standards-based family of computers.

Alpha Site for PowerPCs from IBM, Motorola

Glen Miranker, vice president of hardware engineering and former NeXT
director of hardware engineering, said, "PowerHouse has been working
closely with IBM and Motorola in its product development, serving as an
Alpha test site for their PowerPC microprocessors. Along with IBM,
Motorola, Canon and others, we also have an active role in the PowerPC
Reference Platform definition, and we expect to play a key role in its
evolution.

The PowerHouse management team includes Kondo; Rubinstein; Miranker;
Charlie Barbour, vice president of software engineering and former vice
president of engineering at Solbourne Computer, Inc.; Ken Uno, vice
president of business development and liaison with Canon; and Yoichi
Kawabata, vice president, who heads a group of Canon engineers based at
PowerHouse and working closely with the PowerHouse team on product
development. The company currently has 45 employees and expects to grow to
70 by the end of 1994.

Background on PowerPC, PowerPC Reference Platform

PowerPC, a family of high-performance RISC based microprocessors developed
in collaboration by IBM, Motorola and Apple, incorporates a superscalar
processing design which permits the simultaneous execution of multiple
instructions. Built-in support for multiprocessor architectures makes
PowerPC optimal for performance-hungry systems. PowerPC microprocessors
are remarkably low in power consumption, heat dissipation and cost.

The PowerPC Reference Platform specification is an open, industry-standard
computer system architecture which defines the hardware devices,
subsystems, interfaces and firmware required for a compliant
implementation. It includes minimum hardware requirements, recommended
hardware features, and an operating system requirement to provide the
ability to abstract the hardware from the operating system kernel and
applications. The combination of abstraction software and flexible
hardware specification allows hardware system vendors to differentiate
while maintaining operating system compatibility.

PowerHouse Systems is located at 190 Independence Drive, Menlo Park, Calif.
94025; telephone 415-462-3000; fax 415-462-3051

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