Article on CPQ's plans for Alpha from News.Com...
John
Compaq plots Alpha
comeback
By Brett Mendel
ompaq, seeing opportunity in Intel chip delays,
is preparing to turn up the volume on the
beleaguered Alpha processor.
In recent weeks Compaq officials have indicated
that the company will reduce prices on several
Alpha-based servers, bring out new generations of
the processor for several years, and integrate the
processor into its existing ProLiant line of servers.
That is encouraging news to users who are looking
for RISC-based hardware performance for their
Microsoft Windows NT applications.
"We have Alphas and dual-processor [Intel]
Pentium Pro servers. I'd rather have all Alphas, but
some software is only available on Intel," said Paul
Brophy, president of Patuxent Systems Inc., a
Web-hosting and -services company in Bowie, Md.
"Our Alphas run for months at a time without
problems. I certainly cannot say that about the x86."
Compaq's moves come on the heels of high-end
processor woes at Intel. A bug in the 450MHz
Pentium II Xeon processor has postponed its
release of four-way chipsets until the first quarter of
next year.
The glitch affects communication between the
processor and its chipset, the 450NX, in four-way
configurations.
Servers with two-way chipsets are shipping now,
and two- and four-processor configurations are
shipping for the 400MHz Xeon processor.
Setbacks have also plagued Merced, the first in
Intel's long-awaited line of 64-bit processors. The
company had originally planned for the chip to
appear in systems by the end of next year, but
production problems have pushed that date to
mid-2000.
As a result, Compaq hopes to exploit these delays
with the Alpha processor it inherited from Digital
Equipment Corp.
"It's a huge opportunity," said Mary McDowell, vice
president and general manager of Compaq's Server
Products Division in Houston. "We are looking to
drive and set the standard for the high-volume 64-bit
space and get a commanding share lead in that
market before Intel even has a product to ship."
To make way for systems based on the forthcoming
EV6 processor--the next-generation Alpha said to
be twice as fast as the current EV56--prices of
existing AlphaServer 8200 and 8400 and Digital
Server 3300, 5300, and 7300 will be cut, said
McDowell.
New list prices for the Compaq server had not been
determined by press time.
The server maker will also phase out the Digital
Server line and integrate Alpha technology into its
ProLiant systems when the EV6-based Alpha
becomes available on those machines.
Delivery dates on the new servers have not yet been
determined by Compaq.
As such, ProLiant buyers will be given the option to
choose between Intel or Alpha processors, just as
Digital Servers are sold today. Otherwise, the
company plans to give both types of systems the
same look and feel. For example, they will operate
with common peripherals and software such as
Compaq Insight Manager.
The company also continues to pour resources into
Alpha development efforts and has a road map
projecting future generations of the chip at least five
or six years into the future, added McDowell.
"The plan is to continue to sustain Alpha for the long
term," McDowell said.
But others wonder about Compaq's motivation in
backing Alpha and raise questions about the server
maker's long-term commitment. According to
experts, the processor is seen more as a
transitionary step to Intel's eventual 64-bit release.
"Alpha is going to be excellent in preparing for
Merced," said Jerry Sheridan, director and principal
analyst of the client/server computing group at
Dataquest Inc., a market-research company in San
Jose.
"We believe that's why Compaq has made such a
strong endorsement for Alpha--to keep it around
until Merced matures," Sheridan said.
The platform, he added, would more likely be used
to test and develop 64-bit applications, in which
case network managers would be avoiding the pain
of migrating entire servers between the platforms,
yet be prepared for Merced when it does become
available.
Despite the promise of running NT on a
high-performance, competitively priced alternative to
Pentium II Xeon or Merced, some managers remain
wary of such a migration.
"We have so many servers, why introduce another
platform?" said Jim Marra, corporate director of
technology planning at Partners HealthCare System
Inc., a health care provider in Boston.
The company has 250 Compaq ProLiant servers
running Windows NT and three Alpha-based
servers running Digital's VMS operating system.
"Unless the application ran a whole lot faster [on
Alpha], and we couldn't distribute [current
applications] across multiple Intel servers, I suspect
we would stay with Intel," said Marra.
But even for those convinced that Compaq is
serious about its commitment to Alpha, other issues
may be holding managers back from purchasing
systems based on the processor.
Because new versions of NT and other applications
are required for Alpha, companies with in-house
developers may have more difficulties with the
transition than those who can simply buy
off-the-shelf software.
However, Alpha developers have been left with few
tools to port their software applications from
Intel-based machines, according to experts.
"If you write your own server-based code,
Microsoft has made it difficult to develop for the
Alpha platform," said Aaron Sakovich, publisher of
"The AlphaNT Source," an online newsletter in
Huntsville, Ala.
Microsoft offers two compilers for creating
Alpha-based applications--Visual C++ and Visual
Basic--and these alone are insufficient for many
developers, said Sakovich.
Add to the developer's dilemma a lack of
shrink-wrapped applications for Alpha systems in
general, and managers are left in a position that
Compaq can do little about.
Patuxent's Brophy says some services his company
offers require software applications that are written
in Inprise Corp. Delphi and which are available only
on Intel-based machines.
"These are respected components that [current] and
potential customers ask about," Brophy said. "I
could write functional equivalents [for Alpha], but it's
not worth the time."
Microsoft itself has even lagged on porting its
applications to the Alpha platform, said AlphaNT
Source's Sakovich.
"They're focusing on the enterprise 64-bit solution
that Alpha offers but have forgotten that the system
needs software to run," Sakovich said.
In the meantime, Compaq expects much of the
decision between Alpha- and Intel-based systems to
be made strictly on performance. Managers
requiring sheer horsepower, greater memory
addressability, and the native 64-bit capabilities of
the forthcoming Windows NT 5.0 still make up a
small portion of the overall market, said Compaq's
McDowell.
"We still expect to ship hundreds of thousands of
Intel servers," she said.
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