January 1998
Week ending 30
January, 1998
Due to the large amount of news specific
to the Compaq offer to purchase Digital Equipment Corporation
this week, the news articles will be broken up into two sections
as follows.
News Relating to the Purchase of Digital
by Compaq
- Compaq's $9.6 billion blockbuster
- Compaq To Buy Digital For $9.6 Billion
- Compaq Purchases Digital For $9.6 Billion
- Compaq swallows Digital in $9.6B deal
- A variety of articles announcing
the deal wherein Compaq purchases Digital for $4.8B (US)
in cash plus approximately another $4.8B in stock.
- The making of the Digital-Compaq deal- an
on-and-off flirtation
- Tough decisions ahead for product,
technology paths
- How long can Alpha hold out
- Prospects for Alpha uncertain under
Compaq, analysts say
- Maybe Customers Really Will Be The
Winners, This Time
- Digital Needs Big Shake-Up, Says Compaq
CEO
- Compaq Promises Digital User Support --
For Now
- Compaq-Digital deal a win-win
proposition, say users, analysts
- And the inevitable analyses by countless
"experts", with the classic split on those who
think that this is yet again the death knell for Alpha
and those with more level heads who at the very least say
"let's wait and see what Compaq does".
- Press releases
- The Digital
and the Compaq
press releases regarding the announced purchase.
More normal news...
- Answering
the 64-bit question
- A look at various 64 bit technologies and the future
paths for different operating systems and hardware
solutions.
- Digital
chip sale to Intel at risk
- The Wall Street Journal reported that sources close to
the FTC are concerned that selling a portion of the Alpha
manufacturing capabilities to Intel might put too much
industry control in one vendor's hands. This article also
looks at an interesting scenario that might come out of
the deal.
- Digital
bets on Windows NT
- Digital
discounts servers, upgrades Alpha
- Digital integrates it's x86 and NT-only Alpha server
product lines into a single line.
- Digital
to roll out 600MHz Alpha
- Expect the 600 MHz implementation of the 21264 to be
announced this coming week.
- Microsoft,
Digital expand pact
- Digital,
Microsoft Think Big
- Digital and Microsoft announce an extension to their 2½
year old Alliance for Enterprise Computing. The extension
includes more Digital MCSE's and Microsoft expands its
commitment to Alpha. A
complete transcript of the event can be found on
Microsoft's site, but be forewarned, it is a lengthy
article.
- NetWorker
Save and Restore for Windows NT/Alpha V4.4a
- Digital announces the latest version of NSR with more
options for Alpha NT users. The new version also allows
for throughput up to 550 GB/hour, remote administration
of Emergency Repair Disks, and an improved GUI.
Back to Top
Week ending 23
January, 1998
- Digital, Microsoft To Extend NT Pact
- Alliance to Bulk Up NT
- Announcements in the coming week
will highlight the renewal of an old friendship with
deeper commitments to each other -- Digital offers more
software for NT, Microsoft provides more support for
Alpha.
- Digital Rolls Out 8-Way Server
- Digital discounts servers, upgrades Alpha
- Digital commoditizes the Alpha
family, integrating NT-only AlpaServers into the PC line.
Some view that this now is the death knell for
Alpha (particularly the Intel-sponsored c|net News.com),
other more objective sources realize that this is good
news for the consumer bringing Alpha pricing in line with
x86 server pricing.
- Low-Cost Alpha Offers Cheap Power
- A review of the relatively new
164SX motherboard as provided to Windows Sources
by Microway. "Even without the integrated on-chip
cache, the Microway system blew away the best Intel-based
workstations we've tested, [HP's] Kayak XU ... and
Micron's Powerdigm XSU ..."
- Maxon shoots for pros
- Cinema 4D XL, a 3D modeling and
animation package, is released on Alpha. Special features
include a particle system, bone-based character
animation, NURBS, volumetric lighting, and plenty of
canned special effects..
- MetaCreations
Ships Painter 5 On Digital's Alpha 500 Mhz System
- This version is only included in the Creatoin Studio
Personal Workstation, or as one Digit put it, "buy
Painter 5, get a 500 MHz Alpha for free". Yeah, but
the price tag is a little steep for a software package!
Let MetaCreations know if you're interested in the
package as a stand-alone tool -- with enough requests,
who knows...
- Indy3D Version 2.2 Released -- Now
Compatible With Silicon Graphics and Alpha-based Systems
- Indy3D is an OpenGL, 3D graphics benchmark for a variety
of platforms; source code for the tool is included and
downloadable from the net.
- ``X''
Marks the Spot! ``Titanic'' Team Opens Westside Shop
Station X Studios
- Station X Studios LLC does their magic on Alpha NT. This
article includes references to several completed projects
plus some that are in work so that you can see the power
of Alpha on the big screen or TV.
- PowerChute® plus for DIGITAL Alpha
- Buy a UPS, get free software just
for the Alpha.
- HiQ "Alpha Project"
- An effort is now underway to port
the Amiga system to the Alpha platform; this staged
approach will range from first enabling the two systems
to network, then integrating an add-on card, to
ultimately porting the OS to the Alpha platform.
- Back to Top
Week ending 16
January, 1998
- Graphics Workstations
- PC Magazine's laboratories check
out half a dozen workstations, some running UNIX, some
NT. A lowly, single processor, 500 MHz Alpha takes
honorable mention, outperforming dual processor P-II
Intergraph systems and HP, Sun, and SGI boxes that cost
thousands more. Imagine what they would have thought if
they'd tested a 600 MHz box...
- Windows to the Future
- A brief peek at some of NT 5.0's
features.
- Digital
Equipment Corporation Reports Net Income Of $75 Million
For Second Quarter
- Digital
beats estimates
- Digital
racks up $78M profit for quarter
- Digital not immune to 'Asian contagion'
- Several articles and a press
release reviewing a quarter that yielded some good
results for Alpha -- unit sales up 20% -- while revenues
stayed about the same, reflecting lower prices..
- NT
Bogs Down In Gigabit Race
- Even on an Alpha with a 64 bit PCI
slot, NT has trouble keeping up with the pace of more
mature and finely tuned TCP/IP stacks on UNIX operating
systems. None of the vendors mentioned in the article
dared quote the speed of their x86 systems for
comparison.
- Digital servers discounted
- Expect price cuts on AlphaServers
starting January 27, in an attempt to match price
reductions from other NT server vendors.
- Back to Top
Week ending 9
January, 1998
- Digital, Intel deny FTC probe jeopardizes
settlement
- FTC Antitrust Probe Focuses on Intel Pact
- Intel grapples with legal troubles
- Early last month, the Federal Trade
Commission (FTC, a US government agency chartered to
ensure fair business practices among other things)
requested additional information from Digital and Intel
regarding their planned settlement. With the ongoing
investigation into Intel's alleged unfair business
practices, this could result in yet another delay before
the settlement is finalized -- if it is to ever
be finalized! This could very well be an indication that
the FTC does not think that Intel's being involved in the
manufacture of its only remaining microprocessor
competition is such a good thing.
- Yahoo - Mactell Corporation and Samsung
Semiconductor Announce the Addition of the Alpha-Powered
MediaServer to the Mactell Product Line
- Mactell manufactures Apple clones,
and is now getting into the Alpha NT world specifically
to offer high-end servers for their customers' Macintosh
marketplace. (Curiously, the article calls the Alpha
a "128-bit CPU"; while admittedly some
implementations of the Alpha chip utilize 128 bit memory
busses and other internal paths, it's still only
a 64 bit processor.)
- Digital, Microsoft To Extend NT Pact
- Phase II of the Digital and
Microsoft Alliance for Enterprise Computing will include
several key technology transfers between the two
companies. For example, Microsoft will get several
clustering technologies from Digital, new tools for
transaction processing, Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA)
technology for NT, and of special interest to Alpha
users, FX!32 will become a kernel service in NT 5.0. This
tight integration will offer much improved application
compatibility, even to the point of allowing x86
development tools to be used on the Alpha! Perhaps this
will bode well for the concept of a single platform that
can perform both Alpha and x86 NT development -- a
programmers' dream system!
- Linux Helps Bring Titanic to Life
- No, I've not lost my mind -- there
are references to the integration of the Linux and NT
Carrera Alpha systems used by Digital
Domain to create the
Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) used in the James
Cameron epic Titanic. There's a great photo of the 160 system
renderfarm all packed together in their tiny room, plus
some excellent discussion of the issues that faced
Digital Domain when they moved their applications to
Alpha. (This topic lead to one of the politest OS
wars on the AlphaNT mail list ever seen!)
- Using Advanced Technology to Get Back to
Basics
- A white paper detailing the results
found when a company decided to skip the religious debate
and concentrated on the cost/benefit analysis of whether
to use an Alpha NT solution. Several folks from Station X Studios provide their take on the benefits of
Alpha vs. other technologies. One of my favorite quotes
from the paper:
- "Management had hypothesized that our results
may have been influenced by the fact that we brought our
software in from Alpha first - then ported to other
software. So they did their own in-house porting. The
result? They got a 5x speed improvement."
- Back to Top
Week ending 2
January, 1998
- Defrag
Your NT Network
- A review of disk defragmenters, with prominent reference
to support on our favorite platform.
- HARLEQUIN
SHIPS SCRIPTWORKS® 4.5
- An RIP engine alternative to Postscript supported on a
wide variety of platforms, including AlphaNT!
- Intel
Wrings New Efficiencies From Silicon
- A discussion of new chip technologies and implementations
from various vendors, with the tantalizing line
"...this year Alpha could enjoy popularity it's
never before seen."
- NT
5.0 -- WINDOWS Magazine tests the first beta of Windows
NT 5.0-the version that Microsoft says will become its
flagship operating system.
- A detailed look at the beta version of NT 5.0 --
"...installed without a hitch on a Digital Personal
Workstation 433a, an Alpha desktop system. The easy
installation was not duplicated when we applied the
upgrade to a 75MHz Pentium MidWest Micro system and a
166MHz HP OmniBook notebook..." Ah, such is the fate
of non-architected solutions.
- PC
Choices Galore in Store
- Mention of the 21264 introduction duing the first half of
1998.
- Processors
home in on apps
- A review of processor technologies for 1998, with minimal
mention of the Alpha 21264.
Compaq, Digital, Alpha, and Alphapowered
are trademarks of Compaq Computer Corporation.
Windows NT is a trademark of Microsoft.
The AlphaNT Source website and its
contents Copyright © 1998,1999,2000 by Aaron C. Sakovich
unless otherwise indicated.
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