Rob - More good News on Microsoft's Undying Support for Alpha EV68
the Redmond software giant isn't going to support new NT development on any architecture other than Intel, starting in September.
Paul
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Tuesday August 24 04:50 PM EDT
Microsoft Backs Away From Alpha
Mary Jo Foley, ZDNet
While Microsoft Corp. is committing to support existing NT-on-Alpha customers, the Redmond software giant isn't going to support new NT development on any architecture other than Intel, starting in September.
"Microsoft is committed to developing Windows on the platforms that customers demand. They've overwhelmingly chosen to implement Windows NT on the Intel platform," said company officials in a prepared statement.
In recent years, Microsoft has dropped support for NT on MIPS and the PowerPC processors, citing lack of demand. While NT-on-Alpha never sold like gangbusters, as both Microsoft and Compaq admit, Microsoft's move to back away from Alpha throws into question the extent to which Microsoft will push the scalability envelope in the future. Microsoft has been working closely with clustering pioneers at Digital Equipment Corp. first, and now Compaq, on making NT able to handle symmetric multiprocessing and clustering hardware.
Out One Door, In Another?
Last week, Compaq Computer Corp. pulled the plug on NT-on-Alpha work by laying off 100 or so of the engineers working to support and develop the NT-Alpha platform. Many, if not all of the engineers slated to be let go in early September work at the former DECWest facility in Bellevue, Wash. These individuals work on a daily basis with Microsoft on NT kernel, clustering and 64-bit development.
One source close to Microsoft said Microsoft is considering hiring some of the Compaq NT experts. Microsoft had no comment on the hiring question. In fact, until Monday, Microsoft declined to comment on any aspect of its plans for supporting NT on Alpha.
On Monday, via a prepared statement, Microsoft said it will continue to support Alpha-based NT Workstation 4.0 and NT Server 4.0 customers. Microsoft also will include an Alpha version of the upcoming NT 4.0 Service Pack 6, and plans to continue to provide hotfixes for Alpha-based NT 4.0 and BackOffice products like SQL Server and Exchange Server concurrently with Intel-based hotfixes.
But as of Windows 2000 Beta 3 Release Candidate 2, expected to go to testers the first week of September, Microsoft will no longer support Windows 2000 on Alpha.
64-Bit Confusion
Both Microsoft and Compaq say the two companies plan to work together on 64-bit Windows versions. Indeed, Compaq already had done quite a bit of work on the compiler front, in terms of developing a 64-bit NT-on-Merced toolset.
But the exact form this cooperation will take is uncertain. Microsoft has been building 64-bitness into Windows 2000, but won't attempt to claim that Windows 2000 is a true 64-bit OS one it ships late this year. Instead, some kind of NT64 update, which will feature a 32-bit subsystem allowing existing 32-bit applications to run seamlessly, is expected from Microsoft at the same time as Intel Corp. ships its IA-64 Merced processor--likely late 2000.
Compaq, for its part, is telling its own people and partners that Alpha will continue to be the development hardware for 64-bit NT.
According to an internal email message sent by senior VP Enrico Pesatori late last Friday, Compaq's decision to drop 32-bit NT-on-Alpha work "in no way diminishes our strong partnership with Microsoft or our commitment to Alpha. To increase our focus on Windows NT in the enterprise, we will continue to partner aggressively with Microsoft on development of 64-bit Windows NT. Alpha is the development platform for 64-bit Windows NT."
Pesatori also emphasized that Compaq will continue to invest in Alpha "as a core component of our NonStop eBusiness strategy."
But the operating systems of choice for the platform will be Linux, Tru64 Unix and OpenVMS. "We will drive Alpha volumes by leveraging the growth of Linux," said Pesatori in his email message. "As we have already announced, Alpha will become the engine for future generations of our Himalaya systems, further extending Himalaya into markets requiring robust 24x7 solutions."
Additional reporting by contributing editor Jason Perlow.
See Also: Compaq To Halt NT On Alpha Development Compaq to halt NT on Alpha development Linux-For-Alpha Seeks PC Expo Spotlight Exclusive: Alpha Desktops On The Brink |
