Compaq Endorses Alpha, DUNIX

(c) 1998 by Terry C. Shannon, Publisher, Shannon Knows DEC

Eckhard Pfeiffer's CA-World pitch about Compaq's ascendency from PC purveyor to enterprise computing Big Dog bodes well for Alpha. In an April 28 speech in New Orleans, the CEO said that Compaq will apply to high-end systems the PC market principle of offering products based on industry-accepted standards.

Compaq recently introduced its Enterprise 2000 Architecture, which is designed to render "industry-standard platforms" capable of handling enterprise-class applications and workloads. As previously noted in SKD, the E2000 Architecture includes new clustering, storage, and SMP technologies. For the interconnects, Compaq plans to use Tandem's ServerNet, which offers high-speed data transmission with fail-over capacity on a System Area Network. The incumbent ServerNet technology will be fortified with Digital TruCluster features in a merged Unix clustering product.

Enterprise 2000 also includes Fibre Channel storage, and industrial-strength large SMP enterprise servers. Within a year, Pfeiffer said, Compaq plans to release "standards-based systems that perform at 200K tpmC." By Y2K, the systems should hit 500,000 tpmC. Pfeiffer also reassured his audience that Compaq will continue to support Digital UNIX, OpenVMS, and the Alpha architecture. Positioning Unix as Compaq's entry into the 64-bit computing arena, the CEO said that Compaq will offer IA64-based systems and will also continue to incorporate the Alpha processor into its systems. Since only Alpha and DUNIX are 64-bit today, they clearly are "keepers" in the post-acquisition era.

Licensing deals for Alpha technology with Intel and Samsung Electronics, and AMD are making the Alpha chip an industry standard, fitting into Compaq's philosophy, Pfeiffer said. Indeed, the hypothetical 200K tpmC "standards-based system" to which the CEO referred can be nothing other than Digital's forthcoming WildFire server. Stay tuned!