Compaq Pledges Digital Allegiance
Vows continued support for Alpha, Digital Unix and
OpenVMS at DECUS
By Carmen Nobel and Lisa Dicarlo in Los Angeles, PC Week Online
October 12, 1998
Compaq Computer Corp. appears to be
putting its Digital money where its mouth is.
At the Digital Equipment Computer Users
Society conference here last week--the first
since Compaq acquired Digital Equipment Corp.--Compaq officials laid out
plans for further development of such Digital technologies as the Alpha
processor and servers, Digital Unix, and OpenVMS.
In an effort to build support for the software, Compaq will help fund the
development of some Digital Unix and OpenVMS applications, co-market
the applications with ISVs, and press ISVs for faster delivery of
applications. Compaq will also invest in interoperability between these
operating systems and Windows NT, said officials here.
Rich Marcello, vice president of Compaq's OpenVMS Business Group, in
Nashua, N.H., told a DECUS gathering in no uncertain terms that Compaq
will not discontinue development of OpenVMS until customers say it's time
to do so.
The show of commitment was welcomed by the Digital faithful, most of
whom have long complained of poor software support for OpenVMS.
"Software we depend on has moved away from OpenVMS in droves," said
one Digital customer who requested anonymity.
Sybase Inc. discontinued support for its OpenVMS-based databases early
this year, while Oracle Corp. is chronically late to market with OpenVMS
versions of its new databases, the Digital customer said.
Compaq officials said they had met with Oracle officials last month and that
they have hammered out a plan to make sure Oracle's OpenVMS software
comes to market within three months of an OpenVMS operating system
release.
No timetable on when the two will synchronize their product schedules was
offered.
Not everyone was satisfied. "Where is the native Alpha version of [Microsoft
Corp.'s] Office?" asked a DECUS attendee.
Compaq officials confirmed plans to port Digital's Galaxy partitioning
software from OpenVMS to NT, but not until at least NT 6.0.
Houston-based Compaq plans to make sure NT is ready for large-scale
clustering by doing its own development on the Microsoft operating system,
officials said.
Galaxy lets multiple instances of the OpenVMS operating system run
cooperatively on the same computer, making it easier for IT managers to
control variable workloads.
In addition, Compaq has commitments from systems companies to license
and deploy Digital Unix, said John Rose, senior vice president and group
general manager of the Enterprise Computing Group.
Rose declined to name the licensees or when they would be announced.
OpenVMS 7.2, which was previewed at DECUS and which will ship in
January, takes advantage of Compaq's relationship with Microsoft by
featuring tighter integration between OpenVMS and Windows NT.
Compaq expects to further integrate the operating system with NT through
semi-annual updates of OpenVMS, officials said.
On the hardware front, Compaq said it plans to continue to advance the
Alpha processor. The company is developing follow-on versions to the
existing EV6 version, or 21264, officials said. On deck in development are
the EV7, EV8, EV9 and EV10.
Compaq's commitment to Alpha is underscored by the decision to move
the Tandem Himalaya servers off MIPS and onto Alpha, officials said.
"That's not a decision Compaq would have made if they thought Alpha was
just going to be a stopgap to Merced," said Jesse Lipcon, senior vice
president of the high-performance server division at Compaq.
In related news, Compaq will announce next week that it has rebranded the
AlphaServer 8400 as the Compaq Global Server, which will support up to
eight EV6 Alpha processors, said sources familiar with the company's
plans.
These will be the first new Alpha servers branded with a Compaq logo.
The company will also deliver a two-way 21264 server, called the
Departmental Server, in November and a four-way system, called the
Enterprise Server, in January, sources said.
By September 1999, Compaq hopes to deliver a 32-way Alpha-based
server, sources said. |
