API reaches for resellers with Alpha
clone
CMP Media Inc. - Saturday, December 04, 1999
Dec. 03, 1999 (Computer Reseller News - CMP via COMTEX) -- Concord, Mass. -
The maker of Alpha processor clones will push into 2000 aiming to add more
resellers to its line card and develop technology it hopes will distinguish it from
Compaq Computer Corp.
Alpha Processor Inc. (API), based here, is reaching out to resellers in a effort to
grow its sales beyond Houston-based Compaq-the vendor that owns the Alpha
technology and licenses it to API.
API, which sits in the shadows of Digital Equipment Corp., first to develop Alpha and
now part of Compaq, recently rolled out reseller and product strategies aimed at
erasing its image as a struggling manufacturer.
"The main focus will be on two areas: Linux, on the ISP side, and also on the
animation-graphics side," said Sam Chu, director of sales and marketing for San
Francisco-based Polywell Computers Inc., maker of its own branded systems
running Alpha processors.
"They had been making money only on selling processors back to Compaq, " Chu
said. "Now this is an additional profit they can make. They can do much better than
before."
Currently, the non-Compaq portion of API's business rests somewhere between 25
percent and 33 percent of its overall sales, and the company is going to meet the
sales goals its parent company, Samsung Electronics Ltd., set out for it for 1999,
API executives said.
The executives are, however, cautious about predicting if the company can do it two
years in a row, they said.
API is a veteran of the days when the platform was controlled by Digital, and other
priorities reached into Alpha's development and caused concern, Chu said.
"[Digital] had to handle their own internal financial issues," Chu said. Then, Compaq
bought Digital, took the platform over, and licensed the technology to API through
Samsung.
"API can draw on advantages from both Compaq and Samsung," Chu said. "Their
overhead is very low. They should be able to make tons of money."
The Samsung part of the equation has been a help. While Motorola Inc. experienced
some third- and fourth-quarter production problems turning out a competing RISC
processor for Apple Computer Inc., among others, API executives said Samsung's
efforts put it in good position to fill its orders.
"That's been going well," said Jeff Borkowski, vice president of marketing for API.
"Parts coming out of Samsung have been on time, in [specification]. They have been
high-quality parts, at good speeds."
API will work to move into the Linux market-but will design and market its product on
Linux to be appliance servers, he said. All the while, though, API will continue to
strengthen its channel sales.
"You need to be selling through VARs that have true value-adds-high-quality
optimization and benchmarking," Borkowski said.
API rolled out its first partner program for resellers in August, timing it with the
LinuxWorld trade show.
The combination of focusing on Linux and the channel did not get lost on API's
partners.
Chu, for one, said he believes Sun Microsystems Inc., Palo Alto, Calif., which
produces the competing SPARC and UltraSPARC processors, could stand to lose
share if Alpha sales by both API and Compaq are able to latch successfully on to
the Linux space. In terms of pricing and performance, Chu said, API's Alpha
processors are at least competitive if not slightly better than SPARC.
"I think they are still too small and will not challenge any of those market [leaders]
yet," Chu said, alluding to Sun.
|
