Alpha Rocks!

© Aaron Sakovich, 21 June, 1998

With a few boo's, hisses, and misty eyes, Digital Equipment Corporation disappeared from the New York Stock Exchange ticker on Thursday, 11 June, 1998.

The history books will remember at least a couple items about Digital. It's history as a marketing failure will probably be as forgettable as its marketing. It's legacy as an engineering giant lives on, however, being scattered as the ashes of a cremated loved one, on the global technology winds. The Networks Products Group now belongs to Cabletron; the Semiconductor Products Group went to Intel; Digital Services has gone to Compaq; and Alpha acheived its goal of growing larger than Digital.

With a chorus of cheers in the industry press, much like the proverbial Phoenix from the Digital ashes comes a new creature, reborn, stronger than before. No longer burdened with the albatross of [oxymoron alert!] "Digital Marketing", this Phoenix is set to fly.

Alpha now belongs to no one and everyone; both Compaq and Samsung have rights to extend the architecture. Samsung and Intel are both licensed to build chips, AMD is furthering their work to become another supplier of innovation and chips like Samsung, and IBM looks more and more like a serious contender.

Tech it to the limits

Now in silicon, the 21264 processor is ready to move from sampling to production volumes. At 40 SPECint 95 and 60 SPECfp 95, this chip already is in the ball-park of initial "Merced-2000+" performance numbers (Note: Intel will tell you that they don't have any performance numbers for Merced, but then they'll leak their estimates and projections to the media). The tables have turned -- Intel is now the company bringing out the untested chip with v1.0 compilers, and zero applications, and lower performance. The last time someone tried that was MIPSCO/SGI MIPS processor, which has lost its NT support, although you can find them in Nintendo game machines.

It's the marketing, stup...

Oops, that old saying has to go. Alpha has now a new API. No, not an application programming interface, but a company with a simple name and simple mission: Alpha Processor, Inc. This company has taken on the task of marketing and selling Alpha processors to system vendors and creating the mindset necessary to make Alpha Number One. The biggest system vendor to date is also the number one PC manufacturer in the world, Compaq. Compaq, of course, picked up their Alpha technology through their purchase of Digital, but that wasn't enough for them. They've now spent the first week of the newly merged companies' existence laying out their plan, with no VP, no CEO, no Director too big or too attached to Intel to prevent them from saying the "A"-word. For those watching this space for any period of time, you'll know that this author is excited by the prospect of senior corporate management who thinks Alpha doesn't deserve the number-two slot, or would prefer to say "Alpha and Intel" rather than the other way around. This past week has been full of comments that probably has Intel declaring yet another "strategic emergency".

He says, she says

Compaq fooled a lot of folks for the past few months after the announcement of their intent to acquire Digital. They kept telling the industry that their number one goal was to acquire the services division of Digital, and then provided what amounted to, in the opinion of many industry watchers, little more than lip service to Alpha and its operating systems. They saved the real surprise for those willing to listen the day following the acquisition closure. That surprise took the industry, picked 'em up, slapped 'em around, and stood them on their collective heads. A new day dawned for those awake enough to see it.

"Compaq will support leadership in 64-bit computing by moving Alpha and Digital UNIX into volume platforms", said the big man himself, Compaq CEO Eckhard Pfeiffer, at the post-acquisition press conference on Friday, 12 June, 1998.

Following that, the key architect of the Digital purchase and Alpha bigot extraordinaire, John Rose, said "We will drive Alpha to be part of an open industry standard for 64-bit computing. And it's worth noting that Microsoft uses Alpha as the development platform for [64-bit] Windows NT", a reference to the fact that the 64-bit version of the operating system is now running on SMP Alpha workstations at Microsoft, and only on Alphas. He then teased the global audience when answering the oft heard question "When can we expect Compaq labelled Alpha systems?" His response was the tantalizing "Soon. Real soon.", saying that Compaq would release servers, workstations, and the real kicker, that Compaq would be moving Alpha into new markets. Many listeners claim that this indicates low-cost commodity PC's will soon be brandishing the AlphaPowered™ logo. The following Tuesday at the API kick-off fete, Mr. Rose said "Compaq's commitment to open standards, established channel support, and strong brand recognition, will help play a key role in the evolution of the 64-bit Alpha platform into an industry-standard high-volume solution." (emphasis mine)

Even Microsoft got swept up in the fever of Alpha-praise at the API gala, with Jim Allchin, senior VP for Microsoft indicating that NT 5.0 and 64 bit capabilities from Microsoft are on their own schedule: "We will ship that when it’s ready — we’re not waiting for any microprocessors." Even those that get slid and slid and slid...

Unfortunately, some managed to listen to all this great Alpha news, but still wound up being confused. An excellent case-in-point would be our favorite Intel-bigot, Lisa DiCarlo of PC Week. Many of us have felt that for a long time, Ms. DiCarlo has had the Intel-Inside logo tattoed on her forehead, but somehow she's managed this time to make up connections that simply were never articulated. In her article from 16 June, 1998 entitled "Pfeiffer: Alpha, Digital Unix to give Compaq strategic advantage", she categorizes the Alpha support from Compaq as little more than a stop-gap fill-in until Intel's much delayed Merced comes onto the scene; "Compaq plans not only to retain Digital's installed base but to grow its share of the enterprise pie by providing proprietary 64-bit computing today and migrating to standards-based Intel/Windows-based architectures in the future." (Alpha proprietary? Versus Intel?!?)

When asked if this was indeed Compaq's intention, Kevin Longino, Director of the Enterprise Computing Group at Compaq, made no bones about it: "Compaq does not see Alpha as a "bridge" tecnology to Merced. Not only has [Eckhard] Pfeiffer said it, but John Rose and other Compaq Execs have consistently communicated that."

Another oft-quoted source for Intel-oriented commentary is Linley Gwennap, the editor and publisher of The Microprocessor Report. In an article for TechWeb, Mr. Gwennap said "If you look across the high-end system vendors, virtually all have committed to Merced. I don't expect any of them to change their minds because of the delay. They will use whatever is available until Merced is ready."

The trick for Intel come 2000 or whenever, will be to then convince customers that their alternative with v1.0 compilers and no applications is a better choice than Alpha with 7+ years of NT experience on a 64 bit platform that is twice as fast with thousands of native applications.

The shoe's not yet on the other foot, but Intel is stumbling over their untied laces.

Where do we go from here?

Onward.

There will be those who will question one facet or another, and those who will forever stay in the past. Those with the intestinal fortitude will see the opportunity laid out before them, and the new road ahead. The opportunity exists to realize new markets, new tools, and new profits for those willing to take the challenge. With Alpha now securely entrenched in the industry with support from Samsung, Compaq, and Intel, and with both AMD and IBM getting serious about the technology, there will be fewer and fewer repeating the FUD we've all become familiar with over the past 6 years "Alpha is dead!"

Future millionaires will be taking advantage of Compaq's commitment and will follow their suit. In Eckhard Pfeiffer's own words from his PC Expo keynote speech: "The answer is easy. Compaq will continue to invest in this high-performance, 64-bit platform because it represents the future of computing."

Alpha is alive. Wave the Alpha banner high. No longer is it a niche selling point, it is now a rich selling point.