Great news for Compaq especially now that it looks like
they finally decided to REALLY kick Alpha into high gear.
--
FTC reverses Alpha mandate
CMP Media Inc. - Saturday, March 04, 2000
Mar. 03, 2000 (Computer Reseller News - CMP via COMTEX) -- New York - The
Federal Trade Commission, on a request from Compaq Computer Corp., has
done an about-face on a mandate that it license its Alpha processor technology
to a third party.
In a 5-to-0 vote, the FTC rescinded its original demand, which was made while
Digital Equipment Corp. was still an independent company and owner of Alpha.
In the ruling, the commission "set aside the requirement . . . that [Compaq]
license its Alpha microprocessor architecture to Advanced Micro Devices Inc. or
to another licensee" approved by the FTC.
"The commission's initial decision was designed to address antitrust concerns
arising from Digital's sale of certain semiconductor business assets to Intel,"
FTC officials said. "In voting to approve this matter, the Commission effectively
relieved Compaq of the requirements" to license the Alpha technology, they said.
The FTC apparently was swayed by Houston-based Compaq's decisions last
year to invest heavily in the Alpha platform, as well as a separate deal to license
the technology to a U.S.-based unit of Samsung Electronics Ltd., said Compaq
executives.
"Clearly, there is significant investment going on there on the part of Samsung,
[its U.S.-based unit,] Alpha Processor Inc. (API), and Compaq," said Alan Hodel,
a senior manager of worldwide communications at Compaq. "The need [for a
licensing requirement] wasn't there."
Compaq said last year it would spend $100 million to continue advancing the
Alpha processor platform into the marketplace. Separately, it said it would
collaborate with Samsung and API on a $500 million effort to develop and
advance the Alpha.
API will begin to market Alpha processors aggressively into the reseller,
white-box and OEM segments-in addition to continuing to provide chips for
Compaq, said API executives.
Compaq views the processor, Alpha servers, and the Tru64 Unix-based operating
systems as critical to its Nonstop e-Business strategy, said Compaq executives.
Before Digital's acquisition by Compaq, the FTC had forced Digital to agree to
license its Alpha processor technology to an outside party as a condition for
approving the sale of a manufacturing plant to Intel Corp., Santa Clara, Calif.
The Intel-Digital deal called for Intel to make Alpha processors for Digital at the
plant, known as Fab 6, a provision that drew the government's ire. At the time,
FTC officials feared that if Intel controlled production of Alpha processors, in
addition to its market-leading Pentium-based chips, it would greatly limit
competition.
Digital bought some time, saying it was considering possibilities including
licensing IBM Corp. to produce Alpha processors. At the time, Compaq
executives announced the Samsung-API deal and also acknowledged talks were
continuing with IBM.
"We acknowledged that there have been discussions regarding a potential
foundry relationship with IBM, but we do not comment on the details of such
discussions," Hodel said, following the FTC ruling.
AMD executives did not respond to requests for comment on the FTC ruling.
AMD, Sunnyvale, Calif, plans to begin manufacturing copper processors at its
foundry plant in Dresden, Germany, by the second half of 2000.
Last year, Compaq aimed to have copper Alphas developed as early as the fourth
quarter of 1999, but no such plans have been finalized, said company executives.
API, Concord, Mass., can achieve clock speeds on the Alpha processor of 1GHz
using the standard, aluminum-based processors instead of copper chips,
company executives said.
crn.com
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