<off topic> Samsung forms Alpha processor company with the support of Microsoft and Compaq.............
pubs.cmpnet.com
Samsung forms subsidiary to push Alpha
NEW YORK -- Alpha Processor Inc. here today
made its debut here as an independent company
aimed at marketing and technical support of the
Alpha microprocessor architecture. The new
company, a U.S. subsidiary of South Korea's
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., has the overt
support of Compaq Computer Corp. and
Microsoft Corp.
Compaq's commitment is to build Alpha-based
systems and Microsoft plans to provide complete
operating system and development support for
Alpha. The Boston-based Alpha Processor
venture is a fabless U.S. company with the charter
of driving the Alpha processor into the 64-bit
Windows NT market.
"Alpha Processor Inc. benefits from world-class
technology, performance leadership and volume
manufacturing and distribution resources," said
Daeje Chin, executive vice president and CEO of
Samsung's System LSI Group and Alpha
Processor's CEO. "Alpha is the only commercially
available processor capable of breaking the 1-GHz
barrier. Our relationship with Compaq ensures
expertise in volume channel marketing; through
Microsoft, we can deliver Windows NT
compatibility, and drive Alpha-based solutions,
including processors, chip sets and motherboards,
into the high-volume enterprise market."
Microsoft sees an opportunity to leverage the
ability of Windows NT Server Enterprise Edition
5.0 to support large physical memories on
dataceter-class Alpha-based servers, according to
Jim Allchin, senior vice president of the personal
and business systems group at Microsoft. "Further,
we reaffirm our commitment to providing native
Alpha versions of key server applications, such as
Exchange and SQL Server, and for continuing
technology initiatives to allow Alpha to run key
32-bit IA-32 applications without modification," he
added.
"Compaq's commitment to open standards,
established channel support and strong brand
recognition, will help play a key role in the
evolution of the 64-bit Alpha platform into an
industry-standard high-volume solution," said John
Rose, senior vice president and group general
manager, enterprise computing group at Compaq.
"Alpha's performance, scalability and availability
will enable Compaq to be the leading vendor
supporting the 64-bit capabilities of Windows NT
5.0 when it becomes available." |
