SAMSUNG Gives Alpha a New Lease on Life
Reprinted with permission from Shannon Knows DEC Volume 5 Number 10, April 16, 1998
(c) 1998 by Terry C. Shannon
To those who take the pontifications of the trade press as gospel, last fall appeared to be the autumn of the Alpha architecture's life. Thanks to irresponsible reporting and equally lackluster Digital damage control, the settlement of the Recent Unpleasantness with Intel was interpreted as a death knell for the fastest processor on the planet. In fact, the headline in one widely-read IT weekly put it in almost exactly those words.
Note to the trade publications: don't write Alpha off just yet . Despite widespread concerns about the chip's future, and despite the architecture's embarrassingly low mindshare, Samsung Semiconductor Inc. is bellying up to the bar to place an Alpha bet of epic proportions. Samsung's acquisition of an Alpha architecture license (see "Digital and Samsung Up the Alpha Ante... Yet Again," SKD V5N4, February 20, 1998), was but the initial step in a strategy to boldly drive Alpha where no 64-bit RISC processor has gone before.
Step One: A Carte Blanche License
The February 9, 1998 Alpha licensing pact granted Samsung carte blanche access to all Alpha intellectual property, including all current and future chip design patents. The deal also allows Samsung to design and produce its own versions of Alpha "for specific markets," providing the firm maintains binary compatibility with DEC parts. Moreover, the pact laid the groundwork for Samsung to play the leading role in the AlphaPowered alliance.
Step Two: EV6
Samsung used the National Association of Broadcasters show in Las Vegas to launch the second phase of its Alpha initiative. Unveiled at NAB98 by the Korean firm were a quartet of Samsung Alpha 21264 EV6 chipsets. Samsung's Fab Four include the KP 21264-2.0X, 2.5X, 3.0X, and 3.5X. The entry 2.0X chip is estimated to deliver 28 SPECint95 and 42 SPECfp95, while the premium 3.5X is rated at 43 SPECint95 and 64 SPECfp95. The chipset naming convention reflects performance relative to that of a 500MHz 21164 Alpha processor. Hence, Samsung's 3.5X microprocessor should be about 3.5 times as fast as an incumbent 500MHz EV56.
KP21264 samples will be available next month. Sample prices start at $2,500 for a 2.0X chip. Each speed grade boosts the price by $1K. Volume pricing has not been set, but Samsung will compete very aggressively with Intel. Accordingly, we expect KP21264 prices to be consistent with those of high-end Pentium II chips.
Four still-unannounced chipset suppliers will design products for the 21264. In addition, dual CPU motherboards will be available from Samsung for design-engineering support. Details are sketchy, but Samsung claims that quad-processor motherboards, and systems supporting 24 or more CPUs, are now under development.
Significantly, AMD's licensing of the Alpha EV6 system bus means that KP21264 and future AMD K7 chips will be slot-compatible. Consequently , Samsung and its partners will be able to base Alpha and K7 systems on a common motherboard. which will eliminate the pricing issues that thus far have stymied the acceptance of custom, low-volume Alpha motherboards.
Step Two and a Half: CMOS Shrink
According to Y.J. Kim, director of Alpha marketing at Samsung, even faster versions of the KP21264 family will be available within six months. Samsung began sampling KP21264 parts in 0.25-micron CMOS technology late last year, and SKD anticipates that Samsung EV67 parts will debut this fall.
"We believe we are on the right track to producing and offering the world's first GigaHertz, 100 SPECint95/150 SPEC- fp95 processors by the year 2000," said Dr. Dae Je Chin, CEO of Samsung Semiconductor's System LSI Group. SKD wouldn't be surprised to see Samsung demo a 1GHz Alpha chip this summer, and Samsung will begin producing 0.18-micron chips next year. Samsung is likely to field CMOS8 parts several months before Intel can implementCMOS8 at Fab-6.
The fourth and fifth generation Alpha roadmap appears truncated because of delays in the availability of EV6 parts. By accelerating access to CMOS7 and CMOS8, Samsung can reassert and extend Alpha's performance advantage.
Step Three: All Alpha, All the Time
The final phase of the Alpha reinvigoration campaign involves the formation of a Samsung subsidiary whose focus will be "all Alpha, all the time." No longer subject to a dual-platform architectural strategy, an erratic OEM program, inconsistent corporate messages, Madison Avenue micromanagement, the competing interests of a systems business and a merchant chip foundry, Alpha will for the first time be in the custody of an organization which is 100 percent dedicated to the architecture's success.
Samsung has mentioned the Alpha subsidiary in several public venues, but the mission statement, org chart and rollout schedule for the new venture remain uncertain. According to information from public sources, Samsung's game plan includes accelerating software porting, expanding the Alpha market, and taking a lead role in marketing and promotion.
SKD anticipates that the Samsung Alpha subsidiary will be unveiled this summer. Soon thereafter, the firm will form a dedicated engineering team to address hardware integration and apps porting as well as the motherboard, firmware, and peripheral support functions performed by existing Samsung engineering groups.
SKD 's Prognosis: Alpha RULES!
Under the aegis of DEC Semiconductor, Alpha was flummoxed by competing self-interests. In the pre-Intel settlement days, DEC and Samsung had competing fabs. The sale of Fab-6 to Intel eliminated this overlap, freeing DEC to focus on technology while Samsung focuses on producing and marketing Alpha chips.
With the debut of the Samsung subsidiary, Alpha at last will be able to compete unfettered by the same self-defeating rules of engagement that distinguished LBJ's Viet Nam debacle from George Bush's Desert Storm blitzkrieg. Like Bush and his advisors, Samsung will adopt a take-no-prisoners approach to promoting the Alpha architecture. Alpha thus will succeed or fail on its own merits, and SKD firmly believes that success is in the offing.
Commentary: Alpha: It's BACK!
For the last four years, I've used SKD as a bully pulpit to evangelize the Alpha architecture. Based on the activities of certain entities within Digital, it's evident that my efforts to promote the fastest processor on the planet were contrary to the desires of key corporate 'stakeholders.' While Digital obsessed over 'brand equity,' Intel soldiered on with its Pentium Technology Briefs. The result? Plenty of brand equity--and plenty of DEC stockholder dollars 'invested' in the sagacious advice dispensed by pricey Madison Avenue advertising firms--but virtually no mindshare for Alpha. Game over, Andy Grove wins. Or so it seems.
After all, everyone knows that Intel's nowhere-near-ready-for-prime-time IA64 architecture has "won," and users salivate in a Pavlovian manner every time they hear the siren song of the Intel Xylophone Orchestra on television. And Alpha? Well, PC Week consigned the architecture to the silicon Jurassic Park several days after the Intel settlement was announced. Is Alpha dead? Of course it is! After all, I read it in a trade rag!
While an asleep-at-the-switch Digital sawed logs on things Alpha-related, a few voices in the wilderness managed to make themselves heard. These include Aaron Sakovich's AlphaNT Source at http://dutlbcz.lr.tudelft. nl/alphant/, and the AlphaNT Mailing List (AlphaNT@listserv. mke. ra.rockwell.com). With the addition of the still-nascent AlphaPowered Alliance, and the soon-to-be-announced Samsung Alpha Volume Subsidiary, the decibel level of Alpha advocacy should dramatically increase.
To be sure, Samsung's decision to form a subsidiary dedicated to producing, promoting, and propagating the Alpha architecture is a risky undertaking. Beleaguered by the Asian Flu, Samsung has very finite resources to invest in the project (SKD estimates that Digital is contributing about $80M USD to the effort, a fraction of the money Samsung paid Digital for an Alpha architecture license). Accordingly, the clock starts running the day that Samsung announces the new subsidiary. Forced to live on margins once the initial cash infusion is consumed, the subsidiary has perhaps a year to become a self-sustaining business.
Risks aside, there's no reason why the subsidiary cannot be successful. Samsung clearly realizes that mindshare is a prerequisite to marketshare, and that when it comes to pricetags, "size does matter." Accordingly, SKD expects Samsung to implement a very aggressive marketing strategy and pricing structure for its Alpha processor lineup.
The Alpha Volume Company will be the first-ever business entity totally dedicated to growing the Alpha market. In conjunction with Samsung's stewardship of the AlphaPowered Alliance and the aforementioned "voices in the wilderness," the soon-to-be-announced Alpha-centric company is good news for Alpha advocates, and for the 64-bit RISC architecture as well.