November 1997
Week ending 21
November, 1997
- Computer titans clash over Alpha
- In a new PR blitz, Digital’s
brass tells edgy customers that the Alpha chip remains
relevant. Dream on, says Compaq. Participants in MSNBC's
survey (Is Alpha Dead?) tell Compaq to get a grip.
- PerfectDisk Picks Up the Pieces
- A review of a new product available
on the Alpha with pointers to Raxco's Website (the
manufacturer).
- Second Looks: Digital
Alpha
- PC Magazine considers the Alpha to
be a contender now that 4 more packages have been ported
to native Alpha NT.
- EXPANDABLE:Three slots to 768
Mbytes, four slots to 1 Gbyte -- Viking's T3
Technology Boosts DIMM Capacity
- Viking makes new DIMMs to allow the
164SX motherboard to plug in up to 1 GByte of RAM.
- Wanna Be Web-Savvy? Comdex Boasts
Cool Net Tools
- New product announcements from
Comdex without any mention of the "i" word. New
versions of SoundForge and CorelDraw are mentioned.
- Alpha 21164PC-Based Systems On
The Way
- Fourteen vendors announce new
systems based on the Digital/Mitsubishi designed 21164PC.
These are the first systems to have the Motion Video
Instruction set (MVI) available, which will allow full
screen, full frame rate MPEG encode and decode, as well
as greatly improve videoconferencing capabilities over
systems with Marketing Multimedia eXtensions.
- Fourteen System Vendors Worldwide
Announce PCs Based on Alpha 21164PC Chip
- The Digital press release with a
list of the vendors, plus performance details on the
PC164SX motherboard.
- Tapestry 2.0 Leverages Source,
Transformation & Management Capabilities for a
Scaleable Data Warehouse Solution
- New version highly scalable and
supports multiple platforms for both data sources and
clients; both include Alpha NT.
- DIGITAL Ultimate Workstation 533a2/533au2
- New dual processor workstation clocked at 533 MHz;
systems and options descriptions available in Word,
Postscript,
and PDF
formats.
Week ending 14
November, 1997
- Samsung to show Alpha-based motherboards
at Comdex show -- Going after personal-workstation,
PC-server markets, company says
- Samsung is to start delivering
Alpha-based motherboards, demonstrating them at Comdex.
Discussions of low cost 400 MHz based systems and 700+
MHz 21264 based boards. The memorable quote is "We
are going after the personal-workstation market and
PC-server market with a much higher-performance
microprocessor than the Pentium II"
- INTEL MONEY:To back new campaign --
Digital Plans Alpha Attack
- Could it be? High-end aggressive
marketing of Alpha coming from the monies received from
the sale of FAB-6? Targetted for after the US
Government approves the sale, this campaign could give
Alpha the boost it's really needed. Or as Terry Shannon
is quoted, "Maybe they've [Digital] come to their
senses..."
- Roadblock For Alpha As 64-Bit Pulls Up --
New Architecture May Outrace Older Processors
- An article ignoring the fact that
the 21364 will be twice as fast as Merced in 1999 and
that the quoted 900 MHz is the ultimate goal for
Merced, not its introductory speed. Aaron Bauch says
"Alpha will continue to be an open-market
architecture, and we'll continue that thrust into the
mainstream as well" -- a clue as to where Alpha is
going to be marketed. HP hedges its bets, hanging on to
PA-RISC just in case, shipping the PA8700 in 1999, when
current plans call for Merced to be announced.
- Samsung Rolls Out Motherboard Line
- Taking this week's honors for best
tongue-in-cheek quote is Y.J. Kim, senior group manager
for Samsung's product line. In discussing the 700 MHz
21264 and associated motherboards which should come in at
least 3 times faster than the fastest x86 processors
available next year, Mr. Kim says "We don't need to
overkill the market now". I suppose we'll just have
to wait for the 21364 to do that, huh Mr. Kim!?! Also in
the article is a good description of the new motherboard
technologies Samsung is going to offer.
- Digital VARs get Dataram upgrade
- With new 256 MByte SDRAM DIMMs, the
new 164LX boards can go to 1 GByte of RAM. Steve Gaudet,
of DCG Computers (in good ol' Londonderry), says
"Alpha sales are quite good right now. We're moving
a lot of 533MHz systems".
- The 64-bit Wave: Alpha-poised to catch
the big one
- PowerPC and MIPS proved that a
20-50% performance boost alone isn't enough to justify a
new architecture, and a lack of applications won't cut it
either. Alpha, with a 100% performance advantage at the
low end and 2,800+ native applications shows earmarks of
the right stuff. New motherboards and supporting
technologies from Digital, Aspen Systems, and DeskStation
are discussed. Processor technologies discussed include
"the mid-1999 'EV-7' 21364 CPU, expected to break
the 100 SPECint95 and 1GHz barriers, providing at least
twice the speed of Intel Merced arriving at the same
time."
- Inside Lines -- Scalability Day, Part 2
- Scroll down to the Scalability
section -- Digital and Microsoft will showcase 8 way
clusters and 16 way SMP servers in the second half of
1998. Running on Alphas, of course.
- DIGITAL Chairman Robert B. Palmer
Outlines Company's Strategy at Annual Meeting of
Shareholders
- Succinctly put, Bob Palmer says
"Digital is in a stronger position than ever to
assure customers and partners that the Alpha architecture
is something that they can depend on for the
long-term." The only place Alpha is going is faster!
- DIGITAL Delivers Industry's Fastest Fibre
Channel Enterprise Storage Solutions
- Fibre Channel solutions for Alpha
NT that support existing StorageWORKS hardware and NT
based clusters.
- Samsung Plans Alpha Motherboard Screamers
For PC Prices
- Yet another good description of new
motherboards from Samsung. "Why wait and pay more
for Merced when you can have 64-bit power now for less
than a high-end P-II?"
Week ending 7
November, 1997
- Alpha processor faces uncertain future --
Digital And Intel Resolve Rift
- Analysis by Internet Week offering
both perspectives on the future for Alpha.
- Digital pursues share with servers
- Digital introduces new servers as
described last week. Analysts marvel at the undisputed,
continuing leadership price/performance, but question
Digital's ineffective marketing and why they can't turn
their technological superiority into market share.
- Robert Palmer:Digital Equipment
- Just who the hell is Bob Palmer?
What do his peers and subordinates think of him? What do
Digital resellers think of his strategy? What kind of car
does he drive? (hint: it's two syllables in any language)
- Digital, Intel Settle Suits -- Support
for Alpha platform is ensured
- Information Week takes a look at
the settlement and customers' opinion, and find solid
support for Alpha, although both the magazine and
industry analysts question Digital's lackluster
marketing.
- Samsung cranks out 700-MHz Alpha CPU
- A very brief technical review of
the 21264 and the various processes used by Samsung and
Intel to manufacture the device.
- Samsung Breaks Chip Speed Record: 700-MHz
- Samsung pushes Intel, providing
real competition in the microprocessor market. Their
plans include to move to .18 micron technologies as Intel
reaches .25, and deliveries next year are targetted to
reach 100,000 units, a 2500% increase over this year.
- Samsung picks up the Alpha banner
- Samsung takes on the mantle of
Alpha's champion, pushing 600 MHz chips today, 700 MHz
21264 next summer, and 1 GHz and beyond past that.
Intel's commitment is questioned.
- All's quiet on the Intel-Digital front
- An early analysis of the
settlement, but with a twist in that it talks about some
numbers that we don't often hear publicly, like how much
Digital will save by not having the Fab6 plant, and how
many Alpha CPUs were shipped last year.
- U.S. will get peek at DEC Galaxy
- A brief look at
"Galaxies", "Wildfire" (a 32
processor server), and the ubiquitous settlement, with
questions regarding OpenVMS' future.
- Truce makes Alpha's future uncertain
- ComputerWorld looks at the
settlement and finds questions in the long term status of
Alpha, but see the bright side of the next few years as
new technologies accelerate Alpha's roadmap and reduce
costs.
- DIGITAL Personal Workstations: The Design
of High-performance, Low-cost Alpha Systems
- A Digital Technical Journal
article that goes into the technical design of the -au
series of Personal Workstations.
- `Cool Victory' for Moreland, Digital,
Kryotech
- Kryotech takes top honors at the
15th World Microcomputer Chess Championships with the
fastest system. Running on a cooled Alpha Personal
Workstation clocked at 767 MHz, the program
"Ferret" outmatched the competition.
- Interphase 5526-C Fibre Channel Interface
(review)
- The Interphase card made the
fastest grade in the tests by Computer Reseller News,
and includes drivers for Alphas running NT.
- Adaptec AHA-F940 Fibre Channel Interface
(review)
- The AHA board clocks in rather well
with good CPU utilization at a very low price. This board
has Alpha NT drivers also.
-
- ...and another compelling
reason to buy an Alpha:
Pentium bug surfaces
- The "Pentium FO"
bug will allow a single machine instruction to shutdown
your Pentium or Pentium MMX system. "The byte that
shutdown the world..."
-
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