May 1998
- Week ending 29 May, 1998
- Yahoo
- Intel delay stalls server roll-out plans
- Problems
delay Merced chip
- Adopters of Merced get a major set back as Intel delays
its introduction by another year, making Merced now 3
years behind schedule from the original introduction plan
of 1997. HP, SGI, and others with significant commitments
to it try to downplay the delay; somehow some folks
subtract "early to mid 1999" from "mid
2000" and come up with 6 months (my elementary
school math says that's a year or more). A Compaq
spokesman says that they'll take advantage of the delay
to expand their product lineup with Alpha.
- Digital
employees get memo from the new boss
- The ax will be swift and sure, and those that will be
left will know what their goals are. R&D of advanced
technologies like Alpha gets favorable comments, with
Pfeiffer bragging that Digital and Compaq combined spent
more on R&D than either Intel or Xerox.
- Compaq
to Leverage NT in Digital Deal
- Microsoft wants to get NT into the glass-house, and the
triple team of Digital/Compaq/Tandem are ready to make
the push, with transaction processing, transaction
routing, and 64 bit computing.. In return, Microsoft is
furthering its commitment to Alpha -- kind of a corporate
"you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours". With
a target date of mid-1999, Merced won't even be at the
gate when the race starts.
Back to Top
Week ending 22 May,
1998
- DIGITAL
and Intel Complete Sale of DIGITAL Semiconductor
Manufacturing Operations
- Digital
And Intel Complete Sale Of Digital Semiconductor
Manufacturing Operations (duplicate from
Intel's site)
- Intel,
Digital close chip deal
- The first phase of the deal is complete now, with
Digital's semiconductor facilities in Hudson,
Massachusetts, Austin, Texas, and Jerusalem, Israel being
transferred to Intel's hands along with 1,800 souls. The
final price on the deal turned out to be $625M (US) due
to closing costs. In the process, Intel picks up
StrongARM, and the network and PCI interface
technologies, while being required to manufacture Alpha
processors to Digital's specifications at a discounted
rate.
- Intel
Introduces Industry’s First 66 MHz PCI-to-PCI Bridge
Chips
- Intel introduces the DECchip, errrh, uh, Intel 21150-BC
and 21154-BC PCI to PCI bridge chips that can clock in at
up to 66 MHz with 64 bits of data. Now, if they only had
a processor that could take advantage of it...
- Sonic
Foundry - ACIDShips
- Sonic Foundry's new ACID is a creative tool that allows
users to create music from user-specified sound clips and
standard royalty-free music. A demo version is available
on their site.
- HighGround
Updates Storage Resource Manager
- Storage management software vendor HighGround Systems
Inc. will roll out next week an upgrade of its Web-based
Storage Resource Manager for Windows NT, designed to make
it easier for IT managers to track both individual and
group consumption of disk space. Notification facilities
include admin alerts, email, web page reports, and SNMP.
The new version of the product supports Alpha
workstations and servers.
- A
Look Ahead: Becoming An Industry Standard -- Digital
Hones Its Alpha Plans
- In an interview with Computer Reseller News,
Harry Copperman discusses future plans for Alpha with
insight into the timing of the partners lined up for
manufacturing Alpha, the FTC ruling, positioning Alpha
for the mainstream desktop, the impact of Intel's volume
manufacturing capabilities on the price of Alpha, and
positioning Alpha against Merced with regard to price,
performance, and compatibility.
- Alpha
Support? The Chairman Does It His Way
- As users start to ask for better support from Microsoft
(see our Open
Letter To Microsoft on this site), it appears that
Compaq might be doing the same.
Back to Top
- Week ending 15 May, 1998
- DIGITAL
PATHWORKS 32 V7.1
- The latest version of PATHWORKS for Win32 systems
includes X11R6.3 in eXcursion, is now Y2K-ready, has new
uninstall capabilities, an improved Event Log Viewer for
PATHWORKS events, and bundled InfoServer disk read/write
access.
- PCI-To-Fibre
Channel Adapter Boasts 1-GBPs Transfer Rate
- Jaycor Networks introduces a single slot Fibre Channel
with either copper or fiber interfaces.
- Compaq
Commits On Unix
- With a "Just say Yes" answer for Digital UNIX,
and more folks signing up for Alpha, Compaq puts more
support behind the Alpha.
- Chip
Bets Stacking Up -- Compaq Support Of Digital's Alpha
Processor: A Boon To BYO VARs
- With Compaq making a commitment to Alpha, and Samsung
manufacturing faster chips in larger volumes, VARs and
OEMs are finding it easier to build and integrate
systems, which is great news for consumers.
- Digital
Lines Up Partners For Alpha
- Take a look at some of the details of the different
agreements to manufacture Alpha chips, and some of the
pending negotiations. One fascinating tidbit is that
"Last week, Compaq Computer Corp. also gave a boost
to Alpha by announcing it would put the Compaq label on
Alpha products..."
- Alpha processor gets further FTC
protection
- Careful of this one -- not everything in it is current or
accurate (like "protecting Alpha from Compaq"
or freeing "Alpha ... from Intel Corp's fabs"
have never been a concern), but other parts are
interesting. There is info on the new "Alpha High
Volume" company that Samsung is spinning off, and
more talk on the AMD angle.
- Make
it Work with Windows NT -- Here's how to get your
peripherals working-and working right-with NT
- Here's an interesting article, that although it's only
got a couple of brief references to Alpha, it does
generically describe how to find supported hardware and
drivers for NT using Microsoft's HCL site. This is
especially useful if you're looking for that specialized
piece of hardware and want to make sure it will work
before you waste money or time buying something that is
known to not work.
- Bitstream
Releases Powerful New Font Manager for the DEC AlphaTM
Platform
- Here it is -- font management of TrueType and Postscript
Type 1 fonts for the Alpha in a non-Adobe package -- it
is available today.
- Alpha
bets
- Only some of the feedback to PC Week regarding John
Taschek's article Xeon's
not-so-noble quest: To slay Alpha (see last
week's articles below). You'll need to page down past the
half-way point on the page to find the responses.
- Merced:
Is the frenzy just beginning?
- With the Merced hype reaching fever pitch, customers and
vendors are starting to worry about today's hardware
being obsolete when Merced comes out. Funny thing is, if
you read far enough into the article, you'll see that
there is a way to buy hardware today that won't be
obsolete tomorrow, but Ziff-Davis dismisses it as a niche
market. There's also an interesting, albeit brief, quote
from Aaron Bauch, Alpha Technical Marketing manager, but
the portion they quoted sounds like Aaron's standard warm
up -- and ZD forgot to quote the pitch just so they could
get another dig in on Digital's and Compaq's commitment
to Alpha!
Back to Top
- Week ending 8 May, 1998
- Microsoft
Windows NT Server 4.0, Enterprise Edition
- EE is nothing new, but Digital's
support of it is renewed with particular interest in the
AlphaServer 8400. Unfortunately, there is no such thing
as a "sixteen-way Alpha server 8400" (sic), but
there is a 14-way SMP 8400.
- DIGITAL's
AlphaServer Line-Up Now Stronger Than Ever
- More 600 MHz servers are now
available with the release of an upgraded quad-processor
4100 with 8 MB cache per processor.
- au-Series
-- Enhancements
- The Personal Workstation au series
is enhanced with an onboard Qlogic 1040B UltraSCSI
adapter, updated PCI bridging which removes the slot
placement restrictions, a 32x CD, and finally -- OpenVMS
support.
- 8440
Systems -- Enhancements and Price Changes
- Base system configurations with NT
and UltraSCSI configurations, along with price reductions
on memory give the biggest Alpha (well, this side of an
Alpha-based Cray) a refresh.
- DIGITAL
AlphaServer Systems -- Universal Platform Guarantee
- This article describes Digital's
methods for qualifying which operating systems are
supported on which boxes and how to ensure that an
existing box can be converted to Windows NT with packaged
conversion kits that even include Windows NT.
- Digital
Exec Says Unix Is Alive And Kicking
- Here's a Q&A session from
Computer Reseller News with an interesting perspective on
Digital UNIX on Alpha and IA-64 interoperating in a
planned fashion with NT, versus SUN's Solaris with
limited functionality on IA-64 doing battle against NT.
And to think SUN used to be the one pushing
"open" and "choice" -- how times
change...
- Microsoft
Announces Windows NT Services for UNIX Add-On Pack
- Microsoft is developing a UNIX
Add-On Pack for NT 4 (workstation and server) offering
NFS, telnetd, password synch from NT to UNIX, and the
KornShell; betas of the pack are scheduled to be
available this summer.
- DIGITAL
Announces AltaVista Firewall 98
- The latest release of the AltaVista
Firewall brings features that used to be available only
in hand-crafted or custom firewalls, like out of the box
support for a demilitarized zone (DMZ), content vectoring
protocol, user and group based policies, alarm
thresholds, and DNS proxies. This new version will ship
in July.
- Hewlett-Packard
Readies ManageX Upgrade
- ManageX is supposed to allow policy administration for a
wealth of applications, plus monitor the availability and
performance of groupware, database, antivirus, and
storage management products from a single console. And
yes, it's available on Alpha. (Hurrah! HP finally sees
the bright light of Alpha!)
- Second
NT 5.0 beta due this summer
- Delayed slightly from original
projections, NT5 beta 2 will ship sometime this summer,
give or take a little to ensure quality, an interesting
euphemism for anything that causes a schedule slide. Of
additional interest is that the 64 bit version of NT 5
has now been booted for real on an Alpha (note that Intel
was only able to simulate the same feat using a Merced
simulator -- sounds painfully slow!).
- Industrial-Strength
Proxy
- Using a 500 MHz Alpha with 1/2 GB of RAM and up to 13
hot-swappable disks, the NetCache provides proxy caching
features at speeds at least 15 times as fast as more
common proxy servers.
- More
workflow for Exchange
- Service Pack 1 for Exchange v5.5
should be out mid-summer.
- Massive
layoffs seen at Digital
- With estimates ranging from 15,000
to 25,000 laid-off, ComputerWorld raises some questions
regarding future product enhancements and which product
lines Compaq is interested in.
- FTC
said ready to charge Intel in antitrust probe
- Intel's tendency to withold or even
yank new product information from anyone who disagrees
with them, and to force manufacturers to buy Intel
peripheral chips or components to get processor licenses
appear to make the basis of the FTC's charges against
Intel. (Note the Talkback section at the end of the
article where you can voice your opinion on Intel's
tactics.)
- Digital
in talks with AMD, IBM
- Lisa DiCarlo is trying to make up
for some of her misinformed articles in the past with
this one, it appears. According to this article, Digital
is negotiating with IBM for the ability to manufacture
the 21364 with IBM's copper technology. Unfortunately,
Lisa still stumbles in a statement where she says that
the FTC "expressed concern that Intel would be the
Alpha's sole manufacturer". Ah, Lisa, you forgot
that little bitty $90B (US) company named Samsung who
signed up for Alpha years ago! Intel has never been
targetted as Alpha's sole manufacturer.
- Xeon's
not-so-noble quest: To slay Alpha
- Okay, folks, get your email engines
ready! In this week's "Gaw! I'm so ignorant, I'll
just listen to what Intel says!" article, John Taschek in PC
Week simply didn't do his homework (perhaps he let Intel
do it for him?) Somehow he comes to the absurd conclusion that the lethargic 400
MHz "Xeon" processor is going to kill Alpha!
(Gee, where have I heard that before?) Rather than
criticizing Intel for pumping their creative energies
into the development of yet another proprietary slot
design requiring yet again new motherboards in a feeble
attempt to lock customers into another proprietary Intel
"standard", while only offering slightly more
cache and bus speeds cranked up to 100 MHz, he praises
them! Heck, he hasn't even done his homework to find out
how much Xeon will cost and he admits it! Okay,
I'll give him credit for claiming that Xeon is inferior
to Alpha and that Alpha is "technology that's
five years too early and a marketing effort that's five
years late". But let's look at some more places
where he totally misses the boat:
- "who's keeping Alpha alive? The (FTC)." He's
obviously not read the FTC findings and rulings,
which if you are a regular reader of the AlphaNT Souce,
you probably read the government's excellent insight into
the semiconductor industry in last month's column. What about
Samsung, AMD, Compaq, and maybe even IBM? And Intel
agreed with Digital without the FTC's intervention
to manufacture Alpha for 7 years. Everyone but
Digital's marketing group is dedicated to keeping Alpha
alive!
- "But the FTC will only approve Intel's purchase
... if Intel makes an effort to keep the chip alive"
Huh? This is a total falsehood. Digital
is the one who's required to find 4 or more sources for
Alpha chips, making the Alpha the world's most open and
non-proprietary microprocessor design! Intel has
absolutely no say in the future of Alpha.
- "The Alpha 21264 ... is 64 bit now". Yeah,
and the 21064 was 64 bits 6 years ago. What's his point?
- "the top-rated Alpha box is still the 3-year-old,
30,000-plus-transaction-per-minute score". This
exhibits the typical characteristic of someone totally
ignorant of the complexity or costs of setting up and
running a TPC audited benchmark (any lame-brained person
capable of rudimentary multiplication can figure out how
much a 100,000 TPC system that costs over
$139/transaction is worth -- yes, that's a
multi-million-dollar system configuration for one
benchmark! Is it any wonder that high end runs like this
are only done occasionally?) Which brings up the fact
that he's also ignorant of the 100,000+ TPC benchmark
Digital posted this past week, nearly doubling the IBM
system John was so proud of while running with 1/3rd
fewer systems! I truly doubt that any Xeon-based system
will even be able to come close to this number at any
point in computing history. You can
see the TPC-C
summary courtesy of IDEAS, Individual
Results (Executive Summaries) from the TPC itself, or
a brief announcement of the results from PC
Week. PC Week? Hey,
isn't that the rag John exhibited his ignorance in???
- I hope you all have a lot of fun
telling John and his editors what you think of bad
reporting, unabashed bias, and blatant ignorance in a
technology oriented trade journal.
Back to Top
- Week ending 1 May, 1998
- Samsung
Selects DIGITAL's AlphaServer and UNIX Solution for its
First U.S. Semiconductor Facility
- Yeah, I know, it's a UNIX announcement. But look beyond
that -- it tells you something about the facility Samsung
has built to manufacture Alphas.
- Pfeiffer
touts Compaq for the enterprise
- Computerworld sees Compaq incorporating Alpha in their
systems.
- DIGITAL
Announces Windows Nt Server-Based Solutions for the
Enterprise
- Digital
debuts Alpha server, cuts prices
- Digital pre-announces systems with 21264 processors with
upgrade packages from existing systems. Pre-packaged
servers with a variety of applications plus availability
of the 7300 server with a 600 MHz 21164 is announced.
- Legato
Systems Announces Expanded Platform Coverage for Digital
UNIX and NT/Alpha Product Lines
- Legato announces the release of more packages for Alpha
NT, including their BusinesSuite with "all of the
functionality of Legato's NT/Intel release".
- Bentley's
Latest Edition of MicroStation Engineering Software Now
Available on 13 Platforms
- Synchronized releases of MicroStation SE on 13 platforms
makes integration in a heterogeneous environment a whole
lot easier to manage.
- Omnicomp
Graphics Raises the Bar in 3D Graphics Acceleration
- Omnicomp's new accelerator has 2 GLINT devices to double
the rendering performance to 4.5 million polygons per
second with support for up to 1900x1080 or 1600x1200
resolutions. The board includes 112 bits per pixel and 20
MB of texture memory.
- NetIQ
News & Events - Press Release - NetIQ AppManager WBEM
Agent To Ship With Windows NT 5
- AppManager will be available for Alpha starting with NT 5
beta 2 to help manage BackOffice environments.
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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