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Motorola announced today a major joint venture with Panda Electronics Group Company (Nanjing, China), one of China's leading electronics companies, and Motorola International Development Corporation (MIDC), Motorola's wholly-owned subsidiary in Schaumburg, Ill.

Under terms of the multifaceted agreement between the two companies, a new entity, Nanjing Power Computer Ltd., will be created to develop, produce and sell computer systems based on PowerPC microprocessors. Motorola holds a 60 percent equity investment and Panda Electronics Group Company holds a 40 percent equity in the new company.

Initially, Motorola's Computer Group will supply Nanjing Power Computer with its Atlas motherboards based on the PowerPC 603(TM), 603e(TM) and 604(TM) microprocessors for integration into new RISC PC computer systems that target the Chinese marketplace. Ultimately, Nanjing Power Computer will have the potential to develop new RISC PCs for China and other markets in Asia. The first products that emerge from Nanjing Power Computer will run Microsoft's popular Windows NT(TM) 3.51 operating system.

According to a market report on PC computers in China provided by China's Marketing Division of the Electronic Computer Micro-electronic Research (CCID) of the Ministry of Electronics Industry, the PC computer market in China is entering a rapid growth stage. It is estimated that PC computer sales in 1995 will increase by 50.4 percent with a five year increase of 25 percent on the average. Nanjing Power Computer is being formed to capitalize on this growth with a superior computing technology, manufacturing expertise and distribution channels. The joint venture calls for Panda to serve as Nanjing Power Computer's distribution arm throughout China.

"We are extremely excited with the development of this joint venture, as it brings for the first time the strength of the PowerPC architecture to a market with vast opportunity," said Edward Staiano, executive vice president, Motorola, Inc., and president and general manager of Motorola's General Systems Sector. "The computer market in China is clearly moving toward an integrated multi-media environment that combines graphics, audio and telecommunications functionality which is fully supported by our PowerPC microprocessor-based platforms. We believe that PowerPC will dramatically change the face of desktop computing in China."