Thales' Computers Business group is joining forces with IBM and other companies to form the Power Organization (Power.org), an open standards community that will define open specifications related to Power Architecture technology.

Other Power.Org members include AMCC, Bull, Cadence Design Systems, Chartered Semiconductor, Culturecom, IBM, Jabil Circuits, Novell, Red Hat, Shanghai Belling, Sony, Synopsys, Tundra Semiconductor, and Wistron.

Power Architecture is a hardware development platform and instruction set that enables different components on the same microprocessor to work together.

It is highly scalable, flexible, and innovative, allowing for long-term technology consistency.

Alain Albarello, general manager of Thales' Computers Business, says "Power Architecture will help optimise engineering and design relative to performance and power dissipation. We can offer our customers upwardly compatible products, stability, and technology insertion."

Thales will participate in establishing a reference platform for the VME industry and offer Power Architecture products, building blocks and systems to the military and aerospace markets.

"Power Architecture products will reduce time-to-market and increase access to new market opportunities," explains Robert Nègre, vice president of engineering. "We anticipate faster systems integration and better long-term support, which will increase customer satisfaction."