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To: Eddie Kim who wrote (33495)	9/26/1998 10:11:00 AM
From: Elwood P. Dowd	Respond to of 97611

Compaq's Commitment-- VARs Fret Over Digital Future September 28, 1998, Issue: 1420 Section: News Trends & Analysis Compaq's Commitment -- VARs Fret Over Digital Alpha Future Karen Franse Houston-High-end VARs, loyal to the digital Alpha line, have begun to express some concern about the future of Digital Equipment Corp.'s products under Compaq Computer Corp.'s stewardship. Don Richie, president of Sequel Data Systems Inc., a $21 million VAR in Austin, Texas, is president of the Wyle Digital VAR Council. Richie says VARs are worried: "We're getting zero information. Compaq's making changes and policies in a vacuum." But Jan Smith, Compaq's vice president of Eastern regional channel sales, disagrees. She says Compaq assured Richie and other VARs in a recent meeting that no changes will be made before the end of this year. Richie fears Compaq is not committed to the Digital high-end product lines. "It continues to view Dell as a competitor, not HP, IBM or Sun, who are clearly the [real] competitors in the high-end arena." he says. "We feel that even though [Compaq] says it understands the high-end enterprise space systems, it doesn't." Richie warns that a lack of commitment will alienate the channel. "There has been concern," Smith admits. "But after our last advisory board meeting, many VARs felt comfortable that we would include them in the decision-making process." In a recent, internal memo, chief executive Eckhard Pfeiffer said Alpha is a major part of Compaq's strategy: "We will continue to invest in Alpha and the Alpha brand, in 64-bit operating systems and in software partnerships that have already produced more than 11,000 64-bit applications. These are not just investments in technology. They are investments in our customers."

To: Eddie Kim who wrote (33495)	9/26/1998 10:15:00 AM
From: Elwood P. Dowd	Respond to of 97611

Windows Weighs Heavy on Low-End PCs-Computer Retail Week September 28, 1998, Issue: 220 Section: Opinion/Editorial Market To Microsoft: Let There Be Windows Lite! Mark Harrington By declining to address the low-end PC market with a cheap operating system, Microsoft has left open a considerably large flank. The company further exposes itself to criticism that its ownership of the OS market allows Microsoft to command a premium that has begun to stir the ire of PC makers. It's not that Microsoft is unaware of the heavy cost that Windows 98 bears on PC makers. On certain low-end PCs, Windows makes up an inordinately large percentage of the fixed cost-as much as 20 percent. One PC maker said Microsoft has considered offering Windows on a sliding scale price, so that the cost of the OS would decline with the system price. But in the end, according to this PC maker, concerns about tracking PC pricing led Microsoft to steer clear of that practice. The opportunity to create a Windows 98 "Lite" or a Windows CE "Heavy" seems from a distance to be a relative no-brainer. Given the reception of Windows CE in a PalmPilot-dominated market, and the explosion of sub-$1,000 PCs, Microsoft would have better invested its time directing either of those operating systems toward the cheap-PC market. But with competition relatively nonexistent on the OS side, what did Microsoft have to lose by neglecting the low end? Nothing. Even the few rivals to Windows are so far from the mainstream market that Microsoft can probably go another year without developing a Windows Lite. Microsoft's desktop ownership is sealed up. But it can't ignore the low end forever. Some industry insiders suggest that the inordinately high price of Windows could lead to some response as early as this October, when Microsoft holds its conference for OEM partners. If it seeks an example of the possible consequences of ignoring the low-end PC market, Microsoft need look no further than Intel. The stunning pace of PC price declines allowed Advanced Micro Devices and, to a lesser degree, market-maker Cyrix to win considerable market share in the short span of a year. Intel further misjudged how low the market demanded it go with its first-generation basic PC chip, the Celeron, and learned another valuable lesson in the interim. Now, with its low-cost, no-compromise versions of Celeron, Intel is able to challenge the challengers with a meaningful alternative. While it has snuffed out all would-be competitors, Microsoft faces similar charges of unresponsiveness and worse, the perception of using a monopoly to maintain high prices in the face of sharp demands from its customers. Maintaining a premium price for Windows while all others bow to market pressures ought to strike government watchdogs as further evidence of exercising monopolistic powers. It provides proof that Windows has become such a undeniable standard that, like electricity, its price requires federal regulation. A quick response to market demands for a lower price would help squelch that perception. Let there be Windows Lite.

To: Eddie Kim who wrote (33495)	9/26/1998 10:18:00 AM
From: Elwood P. Dowd	Respond to of 97611

New Celeron and Compaq's Deskpro Review October 01, 1998, Issue: 910 Section: Reviews New Celeron Takes on the Enterprise Jonathan Blackwood If you think Intel's new 333MHz Celeron processor with 128KB of on-chip level 2 cache is destined to slug it out with AMD and Cyrix only in the consumer market, take a long, hard look at Compaq's new Deskpro models aimed at the enterprise. They offer solid performance along with manageability features such as S.M.A.R.T hard drives to report impending failures, cover locks/alarms and remote setup. We beta tested the Deskpro EP C333X/10000/CDS at the company's Houston headquarters. The Deskpro EP series is intended for IT managers who want a standardized configuration that gives them some flexibility. It uses a standard ATX-form-factor motherboard, for example, and doesn't include Ethernet so that each enterprise can implement its own standards. This system's "towerable" case allows you to quickly reorient the drives from a horizontal to a vertical configuration. The configuration we reviewed included a 10GB Ultra DMA hard disk, 64MB of RAM, a 56K modem and a 17-inch monitor. How good was performance? Exceptional. Under Windows 95, the Deskpro EP achieved a WinScore 2.0 mark of 97, just three points below our Quantex 333MHz Pentium II reference system, which has twice as much level 2 cache. Performance was good across the board, except for our DeBabelizer Pro/Photoshop test, where the large image files overwhelmed the skimpy 128KB cache of the Celeron chip. We haven't yet seen enterprise 333MHz Celerons from other vendors for comparison, but they should be introduced shortly. A word of advice: If you use a lot of imaging software, you'd be better off with a full-fledged Pentium II. Although the Deskpro EP is a good performer, offers excellent ergonomics and should be easy to maintain, the price seems high for a Celeron-based product, which were intended to sell well below $2,000. There are 300MHz or faster Pentium II systems available that may be a wiser choice, especially if you use imaging applications. Still, if you want Compaq quality, reliability and manageability with decent performance, this Deskpro would be a good choice. --Quick View-- Compaq Deskpro EP C333X/10000/CDS Bottom Line: Exceptional performance and features, but no bargain Price: $2,055 (add $70 for NT) Platforms: 95, NT Pros: Manageability and accessibility second to none Cons: Too costly for Celeron-powered unit Compaq Computer Corp., 800-345-1518, 281-370-0670. Winfo #761

To: Eddie Kim who wrote (33495)	9/26/1998 10:22:00 AM
From: Elwood P. Dowd	Respond to of 97611

Intel, Tandem, Compaq, Server Rift Widens- EE Times Pt.I September 28, 1998, Issue: 1027 Section: News Intel's Merced schedule was seen as a 'risk' for Tandem system -- Server rift widens as Compaq chooses Alpha Rick Boyd-Merritt Cupertino, Calif. - The rift between Intel Corp. and high-end computer makers seemed to widen last week as the Tandem division of Compaq Computer Corp. said it will use the next-generation Alpha processor in its future fault-tolerant NonStop Himalaya systems. The move suggests that Tandem gives the EV7 version of Alpha an edge in performance and time-to-market over Intel's Merced processor. The announcement comes as Compaq, Hewlett-Packard and IBM are sparring over concepts for I/O in high-end PC servers. The PC makers have proposed a faster version of PCI, dubbed PCI-X while Intel is rolling out more details of a more-radical next-generation I/O scheme. Both sides tried to downplay conflicts on the I/O architectures last week while falling short of backing each other's approaches. On the processor front, Tandem had been seeking a new CPU for its systems since MIPS scaled back plans for high-end processors and heightened its focus on embedded systems. Pauline Nist, vice president of the Tandem products and technology group at Compaq, said the design win was not part of a corporate mandate to promote Alpha but a chance to leverage a close working relationship with chip designers who have the software and hardware background Tandem will need as it shifts away from the R10000 architecture. "With the money Compaq is going to invest in Alpha, we had to put it on the table and give it fair consideration, and when we did that we found it was appropriate to use," Nist said. Compaq owns Alpha as part of the acquisition of Digital Equipment Corp., a deal consummated earlier this year; the company bought high-end server maker Tandem in 1997. Intel's Merced lost the Himalaya design win, she said, for a number of reasons. "The lack of predictability with the Merced schedule was a risk," Nist said. Compiler considerations In addition, Tandem needed strong compiler support for a big-endian architecture, something the Alpha team offered but Intel's Merced team is still developing. "We don't have the wherewithal to fully depend on Intel for a technology that is new to them," she said, noting that Intel's partner, Hewlett-Packard, is developing much of its own compiler technology for Merced

To: Eddie Kim who wrote (33495)	9/26/1998 10:24:00 AM
From: Elwood P. Dowd	Respond to of 97611

Intel, Tandem, Compaq- Pt.II Nist said Tandem would also work with the Alpha software team that developed the FX!32 X86-to-Alpha code translator to craft the kinds of translators and code accelerators Tandem expects to need to let all its existing MIPS applications run on the new Alpha systems. That is the company's biggest software challenge, Nist said, even greater than porting the company's NonStop kernel from MIPS to Alpha. But the most significant factor in choosing Alpha was the ability of Himalaya's designers to work closely with the Alpha EV7 team, Nist said. Tandem has already convinced the chip designers to support lockstepping in hardware, a feature that enables Tandem's systems to let one CPU or cache quickly take over for another running in parallel in the event of a chip-level failure. Tandem engineers are also discussing whether a future Alpha version could embed support for Tandem's ServerNet clustering interface. By contrast, the ongoing Federal Trade Commission investigation of Intel has kept systems designers at a distance from Merced's engineers, she said. "With Intel you are on the other side of the curtain," Nist said. Nist also cited some hardware considerations: EV7 will contain an on-board memory controller and its processor uses a "more robust switch-like interface rather than a bus-based interface." She expects the EV7 to sample early in 2000 and the first Tandem products based on it to ship about 18 months later. In the meantime, Tandem plans to roll out versions of Himalaya using the Mips R12000 sometime next year. While the Tandem design win may not be high-volume, it is high-profile. Tandem's systems are used as servers in up to 80 percent of the world's automatic teller machines and handle as much as 90 percent of global securities transactions, according to the company. Compaq is expected to use Merced in its more-mainstream PC servers. On the I/O front, Intel and the PC makers play down their confrontation over next-generation I/O, saying the two approaches will have to co-exist in future servers though neither side is yet sure exactly how. Intel provided the first public glimpse of its so-called NGIO at its developer forum earlier this month. The approach would use separate host and target adapters linked by a switching matrix over gigabit/second serial connections. Production silicon for the new channel-like architecture could start to flow in 2000, according to the company, about the same time as the first Merced servers. That would come hard on the heels of PCI-X, an upgrade offering speeds up to 133 MHz to the PCI bus that has been proposed by Compaq, Hewlett-Packard and IBM and is expected to ship in PC servers coming out late next year.

To: Eddie Kim who wrote (33495)	9/26/1998 10:27:00 AM
From: Elwood P. Dowd	Respond to of 97611

Intel, Tandem, Compaq- Pt.III "I think these two I/O schemes are very complementary," said Karl Walker, vice president of technology development in Compaq's Enterprise Computing Group, who expects high-end servers might have to use both architectures for some time. "End users would revolt against anyone who wants to come out with a system that turns its back on 100 million existing PCI cards. That OEM would get creamed in the marketplace," Walker said, noting that Compaq still gets demand for ISA slots in its low-end servers. "We believe PCI-X will be required to achieve scalability before a more-disruptive, revolutionary architecture comes along, but the two are not mutually exclusive," said Tom Bradicich, director of architecture and technology for IBM's PC servers. "PCI-X will happen fairly quickly as an extension of industry standards, but there does need to be a more-revolutionary standard. We want to work with Intel on the latter and are still evaluating which of our technologies we want to propose."

To: Eddie Kim who wrote (33495)	9/26/1998 10:30:00 AM
From: Elwood P. Dowd	Respond to of 97611

More on Microsoft, Compaq Technology Swap Reseller News September 28, 1998, Issue: 809 Section: Internetworking Calling The Enterprise: Microsoft, Compaq Team On NT Joe Wilcox Washington, D.C. -- Compaq Computer Corp. and Microsoft Corp. agreed earlier this month to work more closely to drive Windows NT further into the enterprise. The core focus of the new operating system partnership was improved interoperability between Digital Unix and Windows NT, said executives at Compaq and Microsoft. The improved cooperation followed a similar agreement earlier this month from Sun Microsystems Inc., Palo Alto, Calif. Sun said that with the help of technology from Murray Hill, N.J.-based Lucent Technologies Inc., Windows services would be able to run atop its Solaris servers. At the same time, Sun unveiled a co-processor card that would enable Sun Ultra workstations to run Windows, much the way IBM Corp. used co-processors early on to enable its AS/400s to run Windows. Both Houston-based Compaq and Microsoft, Redmond, Wash., agreed to a technology swap; however, it will not be readily available until after the release of Windows NT 5.0. The agreement is an extension of existing partnerships Microsoft made with Digital Equipment Corp. and Tandem Computers. Compaq acquired both companies. "This is going up to the very top end of the market," said Paul Maritz, Microsoft's group vice president for Platforms and Applications. "We want to get there tomorrow, but this puts the stake in the ground and gives customers a guaranteed, steady migration path to get there," he said. In addition to corporate clients, resellers should benefit from the agreement, Compaq executives said. "The real advantage is customers can buy safely today," said John Rose, senior vice president at Compaq, and group general manager for the Enterprise Computing Group. "It helps the channel's business because what they're selling is investment protection for customers, and it takes it into new areas in the future." Officials at Compaq and Microsoft denied their announcement was in response to Sun's plan. But Rose took a quick jab at Sun: "We didn't choose to name it like a detergent tag line, like Cascade," he said. Project Cascade is the name of Sun's Windows NT interoperability initiative. Although the Compaq/Microsoft initiative does not have a formal name, Maritz said, "You could refer to [the agreement] as the high-availability NT initiative on the one hand and the Digital Unix-NT interoperability initiative on the other." Compaq officials touted the company's Windows NT service offerings, which are backed by more than 2,200 in-house Windows NT trained professionals and 15,000 more experts through the channel. Neither developer would reveal further details of the agreement, including what fees Microsoft could be paying Compaq for access to enterprise technologies it acquired from Digital and Tandem. The interoperability agreement includes technology for partitioning on single servers or within nodes of a cluster, said Maritz. In addition, Compaq's Rose stressed the importance of delivering to corporations high availability to enterprise applications, such as electronic-commerce applications.

To: Eddie Kim who wrote (33495)	9/26/1998 10:33:00 AM
From: Elwood P. Dowd	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 97611

Compaq Takes Nice Slice of Inkjet Market-Comp. Retail Wk. September 28, 1998, Issue: 220 Section: News PC-Printer Bundles, Mail-in Rebates Help Vendor Take on HP, Epson -- Compaq Takes a Nice Slice of Inkjet Market Steve Koenig Houston - Compaq Computer is gaining ground in the competitive inkjet printer market by using mail-in rebates and PC-printer bundles to drive sales, industry analysts said. "Compaq dramatically increased its unit market share in August," said Stephen Baker, senior hardware analyst for PC Data, Reston, Va. "It appears that Compaq's gains in the color inkjet market have come largely at the expense of Hewlett-Packard and Epson." According to PC Data, Compaq's unit share in the color inkjet market in June and July was less than 1 percent, but increased to 6.8 percent in August. Compaq entered the printer market in May with the release of three color inkjets: the IJ-200, the IJ-700 and the IJ-900. Industry observers pointed to Compaq's PC-printer bundles and a $30 mail-in printer rebate launched in August as likely factors in the company's market-share gains. A Compaq official described the rebate program, which ends Nov. 2, as "very successful." "We are pleased with our progress so far," said Kevin Kyle, director of product marketing. "Promoting [Compaq] printers with our PCs was a key strategy when we entered the retail printer market in May, but bundling will not be [our] only printer endeavor." Compaq officials declined to discuss future marketing plans. A buyer for a national consumer-electronics chain said Compaq's PC-printer bundles are selling well at his stores. "Compaq bundles are almost a weekly feature in our national advertising circular," the buyer said. "The three-color [IJ-200] is quite popular, but sales of its [IJ-700 and IJ-900] are sluggish." Compaq's IJ-200, which sells for $99 after rebate, accounted for 83 percent of Compaq's printer unit sales in August, PC Data reported. PC Data's Baker said he isn't surprised the IJ-200 dominates the vendor's printer sales. "Compaq is now beginning to accomplish what they set out to do, which is spur sales of Compaq PC bundles," he said. Compaq acknowledged the success of the IJ-200 is creating a sales imbalance in its printer line. "We recognize the need to promote our higher-end SKUs more effectively and plan to make some adjustments to our strategy," Kyle said. Phil Magney, president of ARS, Irving, Texas, said the trouble with Compaq's higher-end SKUs is that they don't offer any performance advantage over printers in the same price range. "Still, there is substantial brand equity in the Compaq name," he said. Baker added: "The biggest plus for Compaq printers is the tremendous leverage they can generate from their PCs. Bundling will continue to drive Compaq printer sales in the fourth quarter."