On Oct 29, 16:01, Alexei Rodriguez wrote:

Subject: Re: Alpha future +--- In our lifetime, "Gregory M. Paris" paris@bose.com wrote: | | Any thoughts on what the Intel/Digital settlement means to NetApp and | its customers? It sure looks (to me anyway) as though the Alpha is dead.

I don't think Intel will discontinue the Alpha line, as it would not be in it's best interests. Especially given the current microprocessor market. Who is out there that has a good chip?

Intel *have* to service Digital's needs for Alpha production. At least that's what I gathered from the announcements about the deals. I'm pretty sure there will be more technology exchange from Digital to Intel over time - Digital's really virtualising its business now, returning in many ways to being a service oriented company.

Intel can almost certainly produce Alphas profitably - having the exclusive license to make them may mean Intel's attitude changes. Intel, like Motorola, seem to have few objections to maintaining multiple processor lines as long as they remain profitable and so far as anyone can tell the Alpha 21264 and 21364 at the ridiculous clock speed they're aiming at will stay ahead of the IA64 line.

As for the rest, the MIPS line covers the full gamut of v.small to v.powerful CPU's and, as a result, has more sold units per annum than HP-PA, PowerPC and SPARC put together, last time I looked.

Check out the Microprocessor report (I think it's at www.chipanalyst.com) for more detailed CPU/DSP industry watching.

Alexei -- End of excerpt from Alexei Rodriguez