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GoNINzo writes: "Compaq has just announced the new Alpha servers. The have between 8 and 32 CPUs, run with a 64-bit 731 MHz Alpha chip, and current are distributed with Digital Unix or VMS. How soon before these machines are shipping with Linux preinstalled?"

GoNINzo writes: "Compaq has just announced the new Alpha servers. The have between 8 and 32 CPUs, run with a 64-bit 731 MHz Alpha chip, and current are distributed with Digital Unix or VMS. How soon before these machines are shipping with Linux preinstalled?"

spludge writes: "Remember the PJB-100? The portable 4.6 gig hard-drive MP3 player -- the one that did not have support for Linux? Compaq just released all the code to communicate and control it under the GPL! All the code and documentation is available for linux and for windows. Read about the details and what you'll need online. Lots of information about how the PJB works and how to communicate with it via USB."

DeepDarkSky writes "Microsoft unveiled the Pocket PC today. Products being available by its partners include: HP Jornada, Compaq iPaq H3600, Casio Cassiopeia E-105 and Symbol PPT 2700. Microsoft's touting it as being better than Palm. Here's a list of features, significant among them: Microsoft Reader (for reading e-books), Windows Media Player (for playing music), Pocket Streets (a map program), Pocket Internet Explorer, and "Pocket" versions of office productivity tools like Outlook, Word, and Excel. " Check out the preview on C|Net as well.

LanceTaylor writes, "Compaq has developed two Linux Integration and Performance courses, one for the Intel architecture and one for the Alpha processor based machines. The first public classes are going to be held at the end of April. Descriptions of the courses can be found here for the Intel course and here for the Alpha course. These courses are being added to the Compaq Accredited Systems Engineer (ASE) program."

LanceTaylor writes, "Compaq has developed two Linux Integration and Performance courses, one for the Intel architecture and one for the Alpha processor based machines. The first public classes are going to be held at the end of April. Descriptions of the courses can be found here for the Intel course and here for the Alpha course. These courses are being added to the Compaq Accredited Systems Engineer (ASE) program."

LanceTaylor writes, "Compaq has developed two Linux Integration and Performance courses, one for the Intel architecture and one for the Alpha processor based machines. The first public classes are going to be held at the end of April. Descriptions of the courses can be found here for the Intel course and here for the Alpha course. These courses are being added to the Compaq Accredited Systems Engineer (ASE) program."

LanceTaylor writes, "Compaq has developed two Linux Integration and Performance courses, one for the Intel architecture and one for the Alpha processor based machines. The first public classes are going to be held at the end of April. Descriptions of the courses can be found here for the Intel course and here for the Alpha course. These courses are being added to the Compaq Accredited Systems Engineer (ASE) program."

Jacob wrote in to tell us about Compaq adding Debian (potato) to the list of systems available for use in Compaq's "Test Drive" program. From the press release: "By registering for a shell account at http://www.testdrive.compaq.com developers can evaluate the Debian distributions running on Compaq AlphaServers and ProLiant Servers. Current Debian systems are: AlphaServer DS20 (ev6), AlphaServer XP1000a(ev6.7), and ProLiant 5500 (x86 PIII). All systems have at least two (2) gigs of ram and as much as 100 gigs of '/home' storage courtesy of a network file system." Wicked-slick.

Jim Gettys (rock!) sent us some good news from the DEC/Compaq camp. Itsy, the ARM/Linux/PDA that has been under development for some time now, and is chock full of nifty little features, has had its schematics and software updated for you industrious do-it-your-selfers wanting to contribute to pocket computing.

Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2000 16:53:48 -0800
From: Deborah Wallach [kerr@pa.dec.com]
To: sa1100-linux@pa.dec.com, linux-arm-kernel@lists.arm.linux.org.uk
Subject: Itsy schematics and updated Linux software available

In order to promote collaboration and to advance the state of pocket computing research, Compaq Computer Corporation's Research Laboratories are making available the schematics and manufacturing information for the Itsy V1.5 Pocket Computer. The Itsy is a flexible research platform, based on the StrongARM 1100, intended to enable hardware and software research in pocket computing. It is a small, low-power handheld device with a highly flexible interface, designed to encourage the development of innovative research projects, such as novel user interfaces, new applications, power management techniques, hardware extensions, etc. The information we are making available includes the hardware specifications, a low level monitor, and the Linux source code for the Itsy.

Information about the project

More information on the distribution

Deborah Wallach
Western Research Laboratory
Compaq Computer Corporation

Jim Gettys (rock!) sent us some good news from the DEC/Compaq camp. Itsy, the ARM/Linux/PDA that has been under development for some time now, and is chock full of nifty little features, has had its schematics and software updated for you industrious do-it-your-selfers wanting to contribute to pocket computing.

Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2000 16:53:48 -0800
From: Deborah Wallach [kerr@pa.dec.com]
To: sa1100-linux@pa.dec.com, linux-arm-kernel@lists.arm.linux.org.uk
Subject: Itsy schematics and updated Linux software available

In order to promote collaboration and to advance the state of pocket computing research, Compaq Computer Corporation's Research Laboratories are making available the schematics and manufacturing information for the Itsy V1.5 Pocket Computer. The Itsy is a flexible research platform, based on the StrongARM 1100, intended to enable hardware and software research in pocket computing. It is a small, low-power handheld device with a highly flexible interface, designed to encourage the development of innovative research projects, such as novel user interfaces, new applications, power management techniques, hardware extensions, etc. The information we are making available includes the hardware specifications, a low level monitor, and the Linux source code for the Itsy.

Information about the project

More information on the distribution

Deborah Wallach
Western Research Laboratory
Compaq Computer Corporation

Jim Gettys (rock!) sent us some good news from the DEC/Compaq camp. Itsy, the ARM/Linux/PDA that has been under development for some time now, and is chock full of nifty little features, has had its schematics and software updated for you industrious do-it-your-selfers wanting to contribute to pocket computing.

Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2000 16:53:48 -0800
From: Deborah Wallach [kerr@pa.dec.com]
To: sa1100-linux@pa.dec.com, linux-arm-kernel@lists.arm.linux.org.uk
Subject: Itsy schematics and updated Linux software available

In order to promote collaboration and to advance the state of pocket computing research, Compaq Computer Corporation's Research Laboratories are making available the schematics and manufacturing information for the Itsy V1.5 Pocket Computer. The Itsy is a flexible research platform, based on the StrongARM 1100, intended to enable hardware and software research in pocket computing. It is a small, low-power handheld device with a highly flexible interface, designed to encourage the development of innovative research projects, such as novel user interfaces, new applications, power management techniques, hardware extensions, etc. The information we are making available includes the hardware specifications, a low level monitor, and the Linux source code for the Itsy.

Information about the project

More information on the distribution

Deborah Wallach
Western Research Laboratory
Compaq Computer Corporation

Jim Gettys (rock!) sent us some good news from the DEC/Compaq camp. Itsy, the ARM/Linux/PDA that has been under development for some time now, and is chock full of nifty little features, has had its schematics and software updated for you industrious do-it-your-selfers wanting to contribute to pocket computing.

Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2000 16:53:48 -0800
From: Deborah Wallach [kerr@pa.dec.com]
To: sa1100-linux@pa.dec.com, linux-arm-kernel@lists.arm.linux.org.uk
Subject: Itsy schematics and updated Linux software available

In order to promote collaboration and to advance the state of pocket computing research, Compaq Computer Corporation's Research Laboratories are making available the schematics and manufacturing information for the Itsy V1.5 Pocket Computer. The Itsy is a flexible research platform, based on the StrongARM 1100, intended to enable hardware and software research in pocket computing. It is a small, low-power handheld device with a highly flexible interface, designed to encourage the development of innovative research projects, such as novel user interfaces, new applications, power management techniques, hardware extensions, etc. The information we are making available includes the hardware specifications, a low level monitor, and the Linux source code for the Itsy.

Information about the project

More information on the distribution

Deborah Wallach
Western Research Laboratory
Compaq Computer Corporation

waite writes "The Compaq Testdrive program is now making available a Beowulf cluster of XP1000s running Alpha Linux. If you sign up for the testdrive program you can register for an account on the cluster to try out your applications in this cluster environment. There is no charge for this program. Compaq is making this available to Open Source developers. No strings, catches, or hooks of any type."

stevel wrote to us with the news that Compaq has announced Version 1.0 of Compaq Fortran for Linux Alpha systems. The compiler is the same as the one that is used on Tru64 Unix, OpenVMS, and Windows. Click below for more details from Compaq.

Compaq Fortran for Linux Alpha systems is a full-language Fortran 95 implementation. Fortran programs using the latest features as well as traditional Fortran 77 programs will be able to take advantage of the highly optimized Alpha code generation technology to take advantage of the Alpha processor's leadership performance. The compiler also supports most of the popular language extensions available on other Compaq platforms (OpenMP and HPF features are not currently supported.)

Accompanying the compiler and optimized run-time libraries is Ladebug, a robust and easy to use debugger that will simplify the debugging of all of your Fortran applications.

Also provided is the Compaq Extended Math Library (CXML), a library of technical and scientific subroutines.

Compaq Fortran for Linux Alpha Systems is available as a free download under a Technology Enthusiast license for non-commerical use. A Commercial Use license and media kit is available for US$399 - attractive multiple-license pricing is also available.

For more information, please visit the Compaq Fortran web site.

stevel wrote to us with the news that Compaq has announced Version 1.0 of Compaq Fortran for Linux Alpha systems. The compiler is the same as the one that is used on Tru64 Unix, OpenVMS, and Windows. Click below for more details from Compaq.

Compaq Fortran for Linux Alpha systems is a full-language Fortran 95 implementation. Fortran programs using the latest features as well as traditional Fortran 77 programs will be able to take advantage of the highly optimized Alpha code generation technology to take advantage of the Alpha processor's leadership performance. The compiler also supports most of the popular language extensions available on other Compaq platforms (OpenMP and HPF features are not currently supported.)

Accompanying the compiler and optimized run-time libraries is Ladebug, a robust and easy to use debugger that will simplify the debugging of all of your Fortran applications.

Also provided is the Compaq Extended Math Library (CXML), a library of technical and scientific subroutines.

Compaq Fortran for Linux Alpha Systems is available as a free download under a Technology Enthusiast license for non-commerical use. A Commercial Use license and media kit is available for US$399 - attractive multiple-license pricing is also available.

For more information, please visit the Compaq Fortran web site.

Wacko asks: "What would be the cheapest way to implement a fingerprint door entry system? I was looking at the Compaq Fingerprint Indentification Technology which I hear is about 60 quid (Uk money that :). If that was linked up to an electronic door lock (like door entry systems) it would make a cool entry system. However, is this feasible and is there any software that could perform this (especially software for Linux)." Sounds good, but how secure are these things?

Thomas Edwards from The Sync (where we host Geeks in Space) sent us an interesting site: "Speechbot" is a Compaq Research project that is indexing online radio shows. Apparently it found terms like 'Red Hat' and 'Yahoo' in past episodes of GiS. Interesting technology. Imagine when it lets me ask my TV to find me every show that mentions Sarah Michelle Gellar.

[Xorian] writes "There's a new portable mp3 device called the Personal Jukebox. Apparently, this is the result of a research effort from Compaq's Systems Reserach Center (one of the two Compaq research groups that developed the Itsy). The kicker is that it's supposed to be able to store about 100 CDs worth of music (it's got a a 4.8 GByte hard disk) and have 10 hours of battery life yet fit in your jacket pocket. No word on pricing yet though. "

gjt writes "Finally. The death of of the ISA slot is near. Red Herring is running a story on the Legacy Free PC. Plug all of your mice, keyboards, joysticks, modems, etc. into the Universal Serial Bus. Compaq is releasing a computer called the Vista which will do just that. Yes, Apple did that over a year ago with the iMac and PCI based G3 and G4. Of course, if you're like me, you'd want to build your own box. Asus makes legacy free "PC 99" compliant motherboards. I wonder if this means more IRQ numbers. And what's the state of USB and Firewire support in Linux?" Suddenly USB is everywhere. Will it take hold? A lot of PC manufacturers sure seem to think so.

newt writes "The Australian's Technology section is carrying a story from Compaq which claims that 50% of Compaq server customers are using Linux. As a result of increasing use, Compaq is beefing up its Linux support infrastructure and unveiling new Linux service offerings similar to the support offered for "mainstream" operating systems. "

Can Savas writes "After Toshiba's $2.1 Billion settlement of the lawsuit on the "probably" faulty floppy controller, others have filed lawsuits against Compaq, HP, Packard Bell/NEC and eMachines. I wonder where these lawsuits are heading but I guess some will strike it rich (having suffered nothing at all to boot). These lawsuits show how unsufficient the jury system is for cases like this where the jury is likely to be clueless. If any of these manufacturers end up settling or losing the suit, then there might be some real problems for the entire industry. "

Pedro Vazquez wrote in point out that Compaq's test drive programme now supports FreeBSD on Alpha and x86 platforms. The Alpha server is a 500MHz EV5.6 (21164) system, the x86 server is a Dual 450MHz box (no mention of processor, probably a PII). You have to register for an account, and then you can go and play. Compaq x86 boxes used to be particularly hostile when installing FreeBSD, so this is a very welcome development.

Ron Rangel writes " This website gives you quick, open, online access to simply run your applications on Linux. Or at least thats what they say." I tried it and it was kind of fun. You sign up (moderately intrusive questions), then Telnet (no ssh) into servers running several flavors of Unix and several Linux distros on different (Compaq) hardware platforms. Want to play with SuSE Linux on an Alpha (or whatever)? Here's your chance!

Prop Head writes "Compaq today named Michael D. Capellas as their new CEO in a hastily called press conference. He was recruited in as the CIO in 1998 and was installed as COO after they tossed Piffer earlier this year. Could this be the end of Compaq's troubles? Time will tell. Click here to see what their P.R. types have to say about it. "

akey writes "CPlant98, a Linux cluster composed of 400 Digital Personal Workstation 500as, achieved 125.2 GFLOPS, which would place it at #53 on the Top 500 list. And this was only a 350-node run... " I'm hearing rumors of 1000+ Linux Clusters. I'm itchin' for it to come out of the closet so we can see some real benchmarks.

davie writes " Jon Hall, leader of Compaq's Unix Group, said Compaq is porting its compiler suite from Tru64 to Linux, and will ship extended maths libraries under the open source General Public License. But Compaq is also considering adopting the software installation software Red Hat Package Manager, and the Gnome and KDE desktop environments in Tru64 Unix. The story is worth reading. "

tomreagan writes "Unbelievable - Compaq CEO Eckhard Pfeiffer just resigned out of the blue on Sunday and took the CFO with him. There's a story at the New York Times (CT:Requires free login) and the official press release can be be found here. "

tomreagan writes "Unbelievable - Compaq CEO Eckhard Pfeiffer just resigned out of the blue on Sunday and took the CFO with him. There's a story at the New York Times (CT:Requires free login) and the official press release can be be found here. "

Richard Finney sent us story to Compaq's latest Alpha announcement. They will be rolling out some new Alpha-based models, trying to use the popularity of Linux to boost sales of this chip. Interestingly, Bob Young, of Red Hat is saying that the # of units of the Alpha are too small to make a huge difference.

Anonymous Coward writes "Compaq is announcing new workstations and servers based on the 21264 microprocessor. They run Linux and they scream (specFP of 58.7). Compaq " The web cast requires registration. Hopefully, cypherpunks/cypherpunks has been set up already. Anyway, that is one fast chip, and a bit pricey, too - over US$7000 for a low-end NT model, or almost $10,000 for a Tru64 Unix model. On a related note, a friend is about to go off to college and has about five grand to blow on a nice Alpha for NT and Linux. Any suggestions for him?

Richard Silver writes "Found a press release about Compaq releasing a Linux driver & source for thier Smart-2 PCI Disk Array controllers. Looks like more corporate support from a big fish... "

ockman@penguincomputing.com writes "It looks like IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Compaq have decided to get back in the game of adding real value. They have a PCI spec. [Ed's note - will have] that's six times faster than the current one. This was created without the support of Intel, as what these companies call "a grass-roots type of backlash" Sounds like good news - either Intel supports the superior technology and competes with Mylex and the gang, or loses market share. Besides, it looks as if Intel will support it anyway. More MHz never hurt anybody (no pun intended).

Compaq and Samsung will announce the formation of a new company next week - Alpha Processor. The new company will market and sell Alpha chips, including the 700MHz model to be announced later this year. I still the Alpha's future is rather uncertain, but looking up, at least.

Simon Janes wrote in with a very interesting editorial for us to read. This marks the first time that someone besides me has had an Editorial posted on Slashdot, but this piece is so worth reading that I just had to post it. Simon writes about the hardware and software industry, and specifically Sun. His conclusions are "out there" but each time I read this thing, I think he's more and more right. Pay attention guys because this is a big one. Everything after this point is written by Simon Janes.

After reading The Washington Post today (" Sun's Lonely Battle", 8 Feb 1998 H1, H15), it struck home to me that Sun needs to be given hope against Microsoft and we all need some kind of hope for a good machine architecture in return. First look at what has happened to other processor architectures in the last 12 months:

Alpha Compaq has stated nothing about what it plans to do with Digital's Alpha making everyone wildly speculate about what is is going to do with it. Some do not like how Compaq has made its hardware very Windows specific or hard to administer at the bare-metal level (no BIOS? you mean I need a floppy disk with Compaq tools? how INCONVENIENT!)

PowerPC Motorola is retargetting PowerPC towards embedded applications because of Apple's monopolistic intents. Personally, I think Steve Jobs has a deeper plan of revenge against Apple, and is running it into the ground under the guise of being a saviour. Motorola was *just* about to come out with a line of G3 based PC's and Apple ruined it. I can imagine a lot of people at PowerComputing are so agry with Steve Jobs, that they would surely create an instant medical condition if they met Steve on sight. Motorola ate a $100M loss because of it-- which was really immature (the "we won't play your game anymore" game), Motorola & IBM should have sued the collective pants off of Apple for turning over the PowerPC apple-cart (the "we won't play your game anymore" game played the CORRECT way).

Intel Intel's offerings are increasingly getting proprietary, and proprietary means expensive. When and if the Merced processor based on IA-64 comes out, it will require a massive compiler re-engineering on the hands of the Free Software Foundation/Cygnus/LDC. On top of that Intel is targetting the Merced for "mainframes". Once you append the word mainframe to a computer, the price of that computer multiplys by several hundred percent. AMD and Cyrix are working hard to present alternatives to Intel, but in a market dominated by Intel and Microsoft, I fear that they will have limited sucess in this arena.

StrongARM A majority of the StrongARM design team have left their posts rather than work for Intel, who apparently now owns the rights to StrongARM. Granted, the StrongARM isn't your super-duper high performance server-class type of microprocessor, but I felt that it would have made for an excellent base for laptop computers.

MIPS MIPS machines sit there in the background. Acer at one time had a MIPS machine you could buy, but that disappeared into the chasm of Wintel. Cobalt Microservers is a start-up who could potentially turn MIPS around. Silicon Graphics is constantly in trouble with shareholder lawsuits so therefore has a cloud over its future.

Where is the hope then? I feel that it is with Sun. The SPARC and UltraSPARC have not had this kind of mayhem perpetuated on them. They are open specifications of which many other companies have implemented and sell-- however Sun is the largest, and most recognizable of them. Much of the hardware Sun has produced is still usable today so except for volume, Sun hardware has a similar history to that of Intel-based hardware (starting from the 386).

Sun needs help for this lonely fight, and it has one excellent place to turn to for it: The Linux Developer Community. Sun needs to follow the two-step method of world domination:

1. Officially support the Linux developer community (LDC) to support all grades of Sun hardware, from the low end (which are already pretty well supported) to the higher end (which are hard for the LDC to support because of lack of access and documentation. Sun needs to recognize that even though its Solaris is good, people love to have choices when it comes to what they run on their hardware. Sun, when it takes this first step, which Digital has already taken, must follow it with the step Digital has not taken--
2. Recognize and promote Linux as an alternative operating system for workstations and servers and ship it as a preinstalled option. I followed a banner advertisement yesterday from Wired news to Digital's little press story on the Titanic being rendered on Alpha hardware. Linux was not even mentioned ONCE in this press statement from Digital. This is not support of Linux on Digital's part, this is a cover-up. (If you go to Digital's Sucess Stories site to find customers who use Digital hardware, you will not even find Linux listed as an operating system option. Another coincidence?) When and if Sun takes the first step of supporting the LDC, it must also follow with the second step-- Promoting of the alternatives as well.

Sun is fighting a lonely battle indeed, but the Linux Developer Cavalry is there, waiting in the woods for Sun's call. Sun, are you listening? Victory is two years away, shine in the next millenium.

Ok, now I'm (Rob) back with a few closing remarks. I think that RedHat has proven that you can take the Linux OS, treat the Linux Community good (RPM, RHAD) and produce a quality product that you can sell. Sun is in a similiar position- they control the hardware, but if they were to openly support and port to Linux, they could take advantage of the amazing power of the Linux Community. Then Sun could concentrate on the 'value added' stuff that makes their platform special. Sure, it means ditching Solaris, but it allows Sun to focus programmers on stuff that isn't already being done better, elsewhere. I'm sure a handful of specialists devoted to Sparc/Linux would produce an amazingly optimized Linux Kernel. This would produce the fastest possible Linux platform, and it woudl make the rapidly growing Linux Population buy Sun hardware instead of Digital.

It wouldn't be easy, but I suspect it could be done. What do you guys think?

Compaq computers has stated that it will become the proud new owner of DEC, a purchase that will end up costing the equivalent of 9.6 billion US. This move, the latest in a series of mergers, sets Compaq up to move forward, by obtaining a company that has been faltering in the past couple years.

Compaq said today that they will be exiting the PC-TV home theatre arena, due to high prices, and not much consumer response. So far, this area has been dominanted, if that word can be used, by GW2K's Destination Systems, but this has not proven to be the money maker that computer makers were looking for.

Compaq today announced a new line of Presario computers, a day after HP announced their $799 PC. Two of the new desktops use the AMD K6 processor (from the grapevine- AMD is expected to cut prices by almost 50% later this week on some K6 models, as well as introduce the 266MHz model, which is present in a new IBM computer).
Compaq also has introduced a MediaGX (200MHz) based laptop. A basic configuration starts at US$2000. The chip was introduced this morning.