June 1998
Week ending 26 June,
1998
- Compaq
-- Stabilized Alpha Is Best For High-End Apps
- Compaq is set to provide solutions for customers with the
classic lineup of x86/NT on the low-end, Alpha NT in the
midrange, and Alpha and UNIX on the high-end.
- Samsung
taps Chin to head Alpha unit
- A look at API, plus some of their plans (like doing $100M
in sales the first year!)
- Direct
Sales strategies -- Compaq Defines Channel Moves
- A good-news/bad-news article for OEMs -- you can sell
Alpha now, but you may have to compete against Compaq...
- Compaq
Claims Victory Over Plague Of Inventory -- News comes
just in time for merger with Digital
- More of the same from Compaq, with good words about Alpha
and how they'll be making it an industry standard.
- VERITAS
Enters Distribution Agreement with St. Bernard Software
to Deliver Open File Storage Management for Windows NT
Enterprises
- The two companies integrate their wares to provide better
file and storage management.
- Microsoft
lighting up huge Web site with SQL Server 7.0 back end
- Take a look at the planet from a whole new perspective --
namely, low-earth orbit! Think of someplace you'd like to
go, click on a map or enter the name, and get whisked
there in seconds. While the database is not fully
populated yet, it sure is fun to be able to view
landmarks (like Fort
Morgan, near Mobile, or the Statue
of Liberty in New York, or the Magic
Kingdom at DisneyWorld!) Populated with over 1 TB of
SQL Server 7.0 database and 3.5 TB of imagery, this is an
example of a VLM (Very Large Memory -- i.e., 64 bit)
application at its best! Visit the TerraServer based on
an AlphaServer 8400 at http://www.terraserver.com/.
- DEC
and ENCOM Coupe
- Remember the movie "Tron"? And the
arcade game "Discs of Tron" that it spawned?
This update that is being developed on and runs on
Windows NT on Alpha is targetted initially for the
arcade, but may make it to the desktop and game machines
in the future. That is, when there's enough horsepower in
game machines to handle it. The MPEG demo file is worth
the download if you're into games -- this is supposedly a
screen capture from an actual prototype game running,
although the final will "be significantly
better". As if it's not good enough already...
Back to Top
Week ending 19 June,
1998
[Note: to expedite creating the
large number of links to these items, this week I've put all my
commentary in the article, "Alpha Rocks!" available on
this site's homepage. -- Aaron]
June 16 - Eckhard Pfeiffer's PC-Expo
Keynote Address
Compaq pledges volume sales for Alpha
Pfeiffer Wants To Make Alpha Industry
Standard
Expo spotlight falls on Compaq Online
Services
Pfeiffer: Web sales, Alpha key to Compaq
Pfeiffer: Compaq wants to serve small biz
Compaq's Pfeiffer and the road ahead
Compaq's Plan to Grow Into Godzilla (And
What Could Go Wrong)
Alpha Processor, Inc. Debuts to Drive
64-Bit Alpha In High-Volume NT Markets
Samsung forms subsidiary to push Alpha
Samsung announces Alpha subsidiary
Microsoft And Compaq Back New Alpha
Venture
IBM in talks with Compaq about Alpha
licensing (InfoWorld)
Merced's dark cloud gives silver lining
to Digital's Alpha
Intelligent upgrades
Vendors Looking At Alpha Again
Corel In NT Pact With Alpha Systems
Vendor
Synopsys Leads Task Force to Enable EDA
Tool Interoperability
Red Brick Announces Red Brick Data
Mine(TM) For Compaq AlphaServer Systems
Yahoo - Lotus Announces New Domino
Enterprise Integration Capabilities
Aspen
Systems Inc. Announces the Montrose Netshow® Turnkey Encoding
Solution for Microsoft® NetShow 3.0 Streaming Multimedia
Services for Windows NT® Server
Back to Top
- Week ending 12 June, 1998
- Birth
of a giant
- Compaq's
Work Is Just Starting -- Digital integration to result in
loss of jobs
- Alpha
Gets Vote Of Confidence From Compaq
- Compaq
pledges volume Alpha sales
- Compaq
unveils post-merger plans, more job cuts
- Pfeiffer
outlines Compaq's envelopment of Digital
- Pfeiffer
sets forth Compaq's new course
- Compaq
executive- Alpha central to 64-bit plans
- Digital's
Palmer: A checkered legacy
- Digital
Brand Name Will Disappear
- After 40 years in existence,
Digital disappears. As it goes, the ashes of the old
strengthen its successor, bringing it to Digital's old
number 2 spot in the computer industry. With the
integration come more good words for Alpha than we've
heard from any Digital management in the past 6 years,
with Eckhard Pfeiffer and his VP's making memorable
quotes such as:
"Compaq will support leadership
in 64-bit computing by moving Alpha ... into volume
platforms," -- Eckhard Pfeiffer, CEO, Compaq
"Our leadership in 64-bit computing is critical for
us," -- Eckhard Pfeiffer
"Alpha provides us with a good five-year head start
on 64-bit computing... We will drive Alpha to be part of
an open industry standard for 64-bit computing. And it's
worth noting that Microsoft uses Alpha as the development
platform for Windows NT." -- John Rose, General
Manager, Enterprise Computing Group
"With Merced it's been one delay after another. So
we feel we can lead with Alpha." -- John Rando,
General Manager, Compaq Services
"If Merced comes along and offers differentiation,
we can migrate the Alpha platforms, but with the delays,
I wonder how long people will give credibility to
Merced." -- John Rando
With friends like these, it will be harder and
harder to make excuses not to buy Alpha!
-
- New Samsung subsidiary to promote
Alpha
- Expect an announcement at 4:30 PM
Tuesday, June 16, regarding the formation of this company
with the remarkably simple and straightforward name
"Alpha Processor, Inc.".
-
- Compaq to Leverage NT in Digital
Deal
- Compaq is working with Microsoft to shoot for the glass
house, integrating applications enablers ACMSxp and
Reliable Transaction Router (RTR) with Microsoft's
Transaction Server (MTS) in a shot at the high-end
performance and reliability characteristics common to
OpenVMS and UNIX systems.
-
- Merced delay does matter, but be
flexible
- FTC antitrust fallout mushrooms
around Intel
- Intel stumbles and analysts start
looking for alternatives. Fortunately for them, they
don't have to look far to find a better option.
-
- The odd couple -- Despite
differences, Windows NT and Unix still have to live under
one roof
- An interesting look at how some
people are integrating NT and UNIX, with perspectives
quite varied, ranging from "Love-Hate" to
"Hate-Love" and even the middle-ground
"Love-Love"!
-
- TelnetD: Thin-client access to
text apps
- Nowadays, "character cell
terminal access" is known by its politically correct
name "thin-client text applications". Here's a
newbie to the game with a nicely flushed out entry with
competitive pricing.
-
- DIGITAL and Alternate Realities
Introduce VisionDome for Alpha Windows NT
- A full-immersion virtual reality
environment, something akin to an IMAX dome, but
completely computer generated. If you've got the money,
you too can immerse viewers in the VisionDome.
-
- PC Magazine- First Looks Online
-- Internet Explorer 5.0 Developer Preview
Internet Explorer 5.0 Developer
Preview Download
- The new developer beta is reviewed
by PC Magazine; the second link is a pointer to the
download site. Alpha bits are indeed available, making
this the first beta of IE to be sim-released to consumers
by Microsoft. Not surprising considering the minimum
requirements for "Chrome" are pretty hard for
an Intel system to match.
-
- Dialogic and Digital Equipment
Corporation Partner to Deliver Computer Telephony Servers
- Using Digital's PICMG standard DMCC boards, a complete CT
environment is being built on NT.
-
- Excalibur Announces Excalibur
RetrievalWare 6
- Excalibur has a new version of
their "knowledge retrieval" engine.
-
- Oracle readies Rdb database for
Windows NT (InfoWorld)
- And here comes Rdb for NT. Finally.
Compaq, Digital, Alpha, and Alphapowered
are trademarks of Compaq Computer Corporation.
Windows NT is a trademark of Microsoft.
The AlphaNT Source website and its
contents Copyright © 1998,1999,2000 by Aaron C. Sakovich
unless otherwise indicated.
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