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To: Rob Young who wrote (87012)	8/20/1999 4:21:00 PM
From: Elmer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 186894

Hey folks, we just closed at a new all time record high. Why so quiet? EP Loooong Intel

To: Rob Young who wrote (87012)	8/20/1999 7:11:00 PM
From: Paul Engel	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 186894

Rob - Are you getting nervous ? "The ax is falling first on Compaq's NT Alpha operation in Bellevue, Washington, where as many as 100 engineers are being shown the door, according to sources. The former Digital unit is responsible for the development of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system on Alpha processors. " Paul {=============================} Layoffs at Compaq NT unit just the start By Joe Wilcox Staff Writer, CNET News.com August 20, 1999, 3:15 p.m. PT URL: news.com Compaq Computer has started to hand out pink slips in the first round of potentially 8,000 layoffs. The ax is falling first on Compaq's NT Alpha operation in Bellevue, Washington, where as many as 100 engineers are being shown the door, according to sources. The former Digital unit is responsible for the development of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system on Alpha processors. But sources close to Compaq said the Bellevue operation is not being singled out; the ax will fall in many divisions. Areas likely to see layoffs are those groups that focus on small and medium businesses, the distribution/sales organization, and the enterprise and services group, which accounts for over half of Compaq's revenue. Manufacturing operations and administration will be heavily hit in all areas. A Compaq spokesman said he could not comment on the layoffs. The layoffs are expected to be sporadic and will proceed as managers get a handle on their organizations. The first serious rounds of layoffs will take place over the next two weeks as Compaq seeks to wrap up the majority by the end of the quarter, sources said. "They've done the major layoffs, now they have to pick and choose by division," said Lindy Lesperance, analyst with Technology Business Research. "There will be a lot of nitpicking." The Bellevue layoffs demonstrate how serious Compaq is about ditching unprofitable units, no matter how painful that may be. And the Alpha NT layoffs hit the heart of Compaq's relationship with Microsoft. The partnership has never been tighter. Microsoft has been developing its next-generation 64-bit version of Windows NT on the Alpha processor. Microsoft's own online operation runs on more than 1,600 Compaq ProLiant servers. Deborah Willingham, vice president of Microsoft's Business and Enterprise division, appeared this week at Compaq's eight-way server launch in New York and emphasized the importance of Alpha to 64-bit Windows. The severe cuts are necessary, said analysts. "We already knew Alpha was vulnerable, so this move doesn't surprise me," said Roger Kay, analyst with International Data Corporation. Harder cuts are still ahead, said Kay. Terry Shannon, publisher of the Shannon Knows Compaq newsletter, said it came down to simple economics. "NT on Alpha wasn't making any money for them." Profitability is the new metric at Compaq, Enrico Pesatori, senior vice president and group general manager of the Enterprise Solutions and Services Group, has said. Compaq units will have to justify their existence through profits and growth. But Pesatori also made it clear Compaq is committed to Alpha, despite the questions that swirl around the future of the chip architecture. "It's been a curse [the questions about Alpha's future]. I got to answer this question for three years at Digital and now at Compaq," he said. Analysts said the coming cuts may be even more controversial. While line managers decide on people, new CEO Michael Capellas is overseeing broader cuts with his chief lieutenants, Pesatori, Mike Winkler, and Peter Blackmore. "Michael has a big job," said Compaq chairman Ben Rosen earlier this week. "He's reorganizing the company, and there are some tough decisions ahead of him." If Capellas has a destiny to make, it will be rebuilding Compaq in a back-to-basics approach, suggested Rosen. Capellas ascended to the chief executive¹s chair on July 28, an 18-month insider who had been chief operating officer. The move surprised many analysts, who expected an outsider to be named. "There is a tendency for outsiders to want to choose someone outsiders know," said Rosen. "We think Michael was the lowest risk choice, not the highest."

To: Rob Young who wrote (87012)	8/21/1999 9:35:00 AM
From: Paul Engel	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 186894

Rob - Even MORE GOOD NEWS on Your Precious ALPHA ! Inside the halls of Compaq West, opinions on the reason for the pullout varied from the speed of the Intel eight-way architecture obviating the need for Alpha to low percentages of NT-on-Alpha users. Analysts concurred with the latter. Looks like those EV789s and EV 123's may all be dumped into the EV ETHER ! Think of that, Rob - Compaq's 8-way Intel Servers may be cheaper and faster than a Alpha systems. Paul {===============================} infoworld.com Compaq dumps Windows NT on Alpha By Dan Briody and Bob Trott InfoWorld Electric Posted at 2:56 PM PT, Aug 20, 1999 In a stunning move, Compaq has laid off more than 100 people in labs in Redmond, Wash., who worked exclusively on porting Windows NT to the Alpha platform. The company has effectively discontinued support of Microsoft's operating system on Alpha. According to a source inside Compaq West (formerly DECWest), a set of labs used to port Windows NT and 2000 to the Alpha platform, Compaq pulled the plug on NT for Alpha earlier in the week. "Compaq was very clear that Alpha would be used for Linux, Tru64 Unix, and Open VMS," said the source, who requested anonymity. The source said that the decision came as a surprise to Microsoft officials, and the software giant was considering pulling out the Alpha code currently written into Windows 2000. The dilemma now facing Microsoft officials is what to do with the hundreds of Alpha systems now beta testing 64-bit versions of Windows 2000. "All of the development is being done on the Alpha, so how can you just pull the plug?" the source said. The atmosphere inside of Compaq West was described as "awful" and "grim" by insiders. Employees are being incentivized to stay on board until the completion of Service Pack 6 for Windows NT 4.0. Inside the halls of Compaq West, opinions on the reason for the pullout varied from the speed of the Intel eight-way architecture obviating the need for Alpha to low percentages of NT-on-Alpha users. Analysts concurred with the latter. "Alpha is the sole survivor of the various RISC implementations, and Microsoft has been getting some mileage out of having [Windows NT] on that platform," said Dwight Davis, a Kirkland, Wash.-based analyst at Summit Strategies. Davis said the timing of Compaq's decision was tricky for Microsoft, where officials have been working feverishly to get Windows 2000 out the door in 1999. "Alpha as a platform has been very much a niche product anyway, and tended to be a high-end niche product [which is an area] where NT has not been particularly strong anyway," Davis said. "With Windows 2000 around the corner, you would think there might be something of a surge in interest of that system on Alpha." "This makes me wonder about the prognosis for Alpha," Davis said. "At Compaq there has been major management shakeups, and this could be something that's fallen by the wayside. It's a very expensive venture and maybe hasn't generated the kind of return Compaq would like to see on it." The move is not likely to be the last from Compaq. Another employee that preferred to remain anonymous said that Michael Capellas, the newly appointed CEO addressed the support division last week and expressed dismay at the number of support personnel. "He was very evasive, but he said that the company would have to study the situation very carefully and make some decisions," said the employee. "He said they were going to have to find out what those people were doing." Microsoft and Compaq officials did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment. Compaq Computer Corp., in Houston, is at www.compaq.com. Microsoft Corp., in Redmond, Wash., is at www.microsoft.com. Dan Briody is an InfoWorld editor at large. Bob Trott is InfoWorld's Seattle bureau chief. Go to the Week's Top News Stories Please direct your comments to InfoWorld Deputy News Editor, Carolyn April Copyright © 1999 InfoWorld Media Group Inc.

To: Rob Young who wrote (87012)	8/23/1999 10:49:00 AM
From: Rob Young	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 186894

Tench, We have a little more data .. becoming the rage over in Usenet land: techweb.com "Reports indicating that HP is pushing the McKinley over the Merced are "complete hooey," Kroeker said. However, in recent HP tests, the net integer performance of a simulation of the first Merced chip was 90 percent of HP's current 440-MHz PA-RISC 8500, and 85 percent of the 8500's ability to calculate floating-point operations, according to Kroeker. The tests were conducted to eliminate factors such as bus speed, using software that would isolate the performance of the CPU. While the Merced's clock speed is faster than 440 MHz, it has not been publicly disclosed, he said. " Seems HP let the cat out of the bag on performance. Doing the math this puts Merced at 30.6 integer and 43.7 fp. Given Merced will translate HP PA-RISC binaries to IA-64 calls on the fly .. and state of the art binary translation yields 70% native performance you can see that PA-RISC will do about 21 SpecInt and 31 or so floating point. By late next year, HP with the 8600 will be more than twice as fast than Merced running PA-RISC binaries and quite a bit faster running recompiled HP/UX code on Merced. No wonder the PA-RISC side of the house isn't interested in Merced... wait until McKinley. Twice as fast as Merced! 80 SpecFp95 in 2001 for McKinley will catch Intel up to where Alpha will be in October 1999. Rob