Gnarly,
Late, but here it is anyway...
StrongArm future, and value (or lack of) porting Draw to Alpha...
Pete
news.com]
Settlement good for business, bad for Alpha
By Michael Kanellos
October 27, 1997, 12:50 p.m. PT
news analysis: In the proposed settlement between
Digital and Intel, the loser appears to be Alpha....
......"Over time, the Alpha will become less and less
important," said Michael Slater, principal analyst at
the MicroDesign Resources. "Alpha customers
have a reason to be concerned."
Or, as another analyst put it, "It's not dead now,
but by 2000 it will be."
The settlement, however, could prove to be a
springboard for Digital's StrongARM embedded
processors. Under terms of the agreement, Intel
will take over development of the low-powered
processors used in personal assistants and other
small, mobile computing devices. Intel has hinted
several times that it plans to get into this market, but
the lower profits these type of chips bring has kept
the company from dedicating much effort to it, a
number of analysts have said.
Although Intel's commitment to development in this
area remains clear, the StrongARM acquisition
eases the research and development effort required
to get into the market.
"That was the most surprising thing about the
settlement," said Slater. "It does fit well into Intel's
portfolio. Intel's embedded processors have not
been competitive." |
