February 1998
Week
ending 20 February, 1998
- New
Networker 5.1 Sets Recovery Performance Record
- Legato's Networker is now available with both client and
server for NT on Alpha.
- Computer
Associates, Digital And StorageTek Set New Standard For
SAP R-3 Backup Performance On Windows NT
- Talk about hauling bit! Backup over 200 GBytes per hour
while your database is still live! Or take it offline and
backup half-a-terabyte in the same amount of time!
- DEC
draws road map to next Alpha upgrade
- Looking at the plan for the 21264 (EV6) family of
processors from its introduction in May through two die
shrinks (from .35 to .25 and then to .18 micron) as the
speed jumps to 1,000 MHz and beyond.
- Digital
tightens its belt
- Digital restricts its employees' expense habits again in
an attempt to "efficiently use resources".
- Microprocessors
-- Reveals 667-mhz 21164 alpha and a RISC chip tuned for
set-top boxes -- Digital updates Alpha, StrongARM designs
- Shrinking the 21164PC from .35 to .28 microns bumps the
speed up 25% (note error in article referring to current
"566 MHz" speed of the 21164PC -- in reality,
it's 533 MHz). This will push the floating point
performance up to the 20 SPECfp range. And this is the
low-end Alpha... Ha!
- Ultra2
SCSI Provides Fast Data Throughput
- Atto Technology announces an Ultra2/Wide SCSI adapter
that will peak at 80 MBytes/sec; Alpha drivers included
in the box.
- Superchip
won’t be so super
- Remember how people used to think OS/2 and Microchannel
were going to be the de facto standards just because IBM
was marketing them? John Dodge wonders if the same fate
could befall IA-64 as the promised performance falls far
short of the Alpha's roadmap which is already doing 64
bit production enterprise work.
- RSA's
encryption challenge solved in 39 days
- An Alpha processor using distributed.net's
RC5-DES software found the key within the 45 day limit to
win $5,000 (US). Sure, the system was running Digital
UNIX, but the effort resulted in a vastly improved Alpha
NT client and our team ending up in the number 9 spot
overall despite having started late. Stay tuned to this
site, Malte Boegershausen's AlphaNT Team's site,
and the distributed.net site for news regarding DES-III
in July!
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Week ending
20 February, 1998
- Ligos
Technology Begins Shipping Powerful New VRML Learning
Tool
- A powerful learning package available in both educator
and student versions for learning VRML.
- Synopsys
FPGA Express Support for Windows NT on Digital's Alpha
- The recently announced v2.0 of FPGA synthesis tool has
now been ported to the Alpha platform.
- News
- February 9, 1998 - Hitachi, Ltd. and DIGITAL to Jointly
Develop Enterprise Software
- Digital and Hitachi collaborate on enterprise class
software for Windows NT on Alpha and that other legacy
platform to enhance Microsoft Cluster Server, tuning NT
SMP performance for 64 bit systems, and optimizing
Hitachi's JP1 Job Management package for the Alpha.
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Week ending
13 February, 1998
- Digital,
Samsung strengthen Alpha ties
- Samsung
ups the ante on Digital's Alpha bet
- Samsung
And Digital Work On Alpha MPU Agreement
- Samsung
buys patent rights to the Alpha
- Mitsubishi
ends Alpha pact
- Digital grants Samsung full access to the patents and
technology involved with the Alpha architecture, while
Mitsubishi reviews their plans for Alpha (or, as the ever
dire C|Net News likes to proclaim, "It's the death
of Alpha!"). What this means depends on who you talk
to -- some see it as Samsung's opening new low-end
alternatives, others view it as a strengthening of the
entire product line.
- Two
roads diverged
- A look at how Merced is being planned to enter the
enterprise arena offers two interesting notes: that
Microsoft is cozying up to Digital for enterprise
services on Alpha, and that Intel cringes at the
"Wintel" moniker. One piece of misinformation
is in the bullet proclaiming that 64 bit NT will be
released concurrent with Merced. In all actuality, the 64
bit VLM extensions to NT will be in NT 5.0 which could
easily beat Merced to the marketplace by nearly a year,
and a true and complete 64 bit version of NT won't be
available for several years yet.
- Digital
trims workstation prices
- Prices are cut by as much as 10% across the board of the
Personal Workstation line. Note, as pointed out by an
alert AlphaNT mail list member, the definition of a
Personal Workstation is not "a high-powered system
based on Intel processors that uses the Windows NT
operating system" (isn't "high-powered Intel
processor" an oxymoron?), but instead "a
workstation optimized for Windows NT", regardless of
whether it has a low-end Intel or high-end Alpha
processor in it.
- Carrera
Computers Bundles NewTek's Lightwave 5.5 into Systems
- Buy an Alpha, get Lightwave included, normally a $2,000
(US) package! You can even get a special system
configuration that allows you to include a 17"
monitor for only $199.
- CA
File Jockey 2.0 Provides Simplified Access To
Heterogeneous Optical Media
- Do you have to manage a lot of optical media in a
jukebox? Computer Associates' File Jockey may be
able to help, now that it's available on Alpha.
- MapInfo
Teams with DIGITAL to Deliver More Powerful Business
Solutions Across the Enterprise
- MapInfo Professional is now available for Windows NT on
Alpha.
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Week ending
6 February, 1998
Headlines relating to the Compaq and Digital merger
- Compaq
Breathes New Life Into Alpha
- "`Compaq wants Alpha to be successful. It's
fundamental to this transaction,' said Bob Fernander,
Compaq's vice president of enterprise." -- need I
say anything more?
- Users
Upbeat, But Wary, About Digital's Future
- As if you didn't know how users felt about the deal,
here's some comments from different folks -- both Digital
and Compaq customers, as well as a few analysts.
- In
Digital acquisition, does Compaq want the Alpha?
- Pfeiffer's being coy, Digital says "Full speed
ahead", and Samsung muses on Compaq's reasoning.
- Enterprise
Quest -- Compaq to get clusters, 64-bit NT with Digital
-- Powerful competition to IBM, HP
- Computer Reseller News tends to think this deal has a lot
of potential, for Compaq and for Alpha.
- ShadowRam
- And now, for the Bill Gates conspiracy theory...
News and opinions regarding the 21264 processor announcement
- DIGITAL
to Break 1,000MHz Barrier
- We'll start with Digital's press release describing the
new processor, the introductory speeds, and the plans to
carry it past Merced's capabilities before Merced's even
available. The new processor will be introduced at speeds
resulting in about 40 SPECint 95 and 60 SPECfp 95, with
the potential to push past 100 SPECint 95 150 SPECfp 95
by 2000. The initial .35 micron devices are sampling now,
and production volumes will be attained in the first half
of this year.
- Digital
Unveils Next Generation Of Alpha Chip
- Digital
to rev up Alpha architecture to 1,000 MHz
- Digital's
need for speed -- Alpha 21264 will run at 600MHz; clock
speed of 1GHz by 2000
- Digital's
Alpha to remain fastest chip?
- Is there any competition on the performance front?
- Digital
Unveils Alpha Vs. Merced Strategy
- A look at Digital's plans with some opinions.
- Samsung
Charts Alpha Future
- And a look at Samsung's plans for this year regarding the
21264 plus currently available 21164 product.
- Samsung
still leads Digital in Alpha development
- Is Digital's biggest competition Samsung? This article
compares the status of the different technologies being
planned for the 21264 by each vendor, plus takes a brief
look at the pricing relative to Merced's.
IBM announced that a dedicated team produced a stripped-down,
proof of concept, PowerPC that they overclocked at 1 GHz in the
lab. Didn't Digital do that a year ago?
- Digital,
IBM Plan Speedier Processors -- Vendors to deliver
machines clocked at 1 GHz by 2000
- A description of both announcements.
- Digital
scoffs at IBM's new chip
- And Digital's and analysts opinions on which is closer to
something users can take advantage of.
More news
- Windows
NT finds home on mainframes
- Watch for an announcement from Hitachi and Digital
regarding new research into software technologies to
further elevate Windows NT into the enterprise, with NUMA
and clusters.
- Digital
And Microsoft Think Big
- Microsoft,
Digital expand pact
- A wrap up of last week's "AEC part deux"
announcement.
- Disposable
PCs -- The Slot Thickens
- A look at AMD's bombshell announcement regarding Slot A
design, plus a look at some of the details of the common
open design.
- Alpha's
Future
- Byte Magazine takes a look at the Intel deal and lays out
each vendor's microprocessor roadmaps, from 1996 to the
end of 1999.
- Alpha
Platform Gets Vote Of Confidence -- Automatic Data
Processing awards Digital $100M contract for
AlphaServers, services
- ADP's Dealer Services Group announces that they will be
selling their own systems, the Millenia 3 series, based
on the Alpha, running either UNIX or Windows NT.
- Digital
to assist in port of Netscape's Enterprise Server v3.5
and Navigator/Communicator browser v4.04
- Digital will be expediting the port of these packages to
Windows NT on Alpha; this article includes contact
information if you've got any input to the process.
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
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