Alpha Up For Grabs?

A number of people have been writing about Compaq selling off the Alpha processor, with some coverage from different media sources. The Inquirer cites Intel as the likely buyer, which seems odd to me considering their aversion to antitrust lawsuits. Maybe AMD? Who knows - it's too bad that the Alpha technology has never realized the same commercial success as it has technologically.

Comments

Re:Why Intel or AMD?

[Black Parrot]

> I would think it would be a lot of money to buy a product that would not be that useful to either company except to maybe get some ideas on improving there own chips.

Actually, most of the ideas are readily accessible in published papers. There may be some patents locked up in the Alpha, but I doubt that there are any secrets.

> I dont think there would be a large market for the Alpha being that Compaq and DEC could do nothing with the chip.

DEC was renowned for nothing so much as their inability to market good products. Dunno about Compaq, but without an NT for it I can't imagine that they would know what to do with it (which probably explains this article).

Your VIA suggestion sounds good. However, I think it would be a shrewd move for AMD too, if they're in a position to market it at a more competitive price than it traditionally has been.

Also, parts of AMD's architecture has been converging with parts of the Alpha's (even on Athlons), so AMD might be able to integrate it into the high end of a "family" of processors.

However, another question also arises. The Alpha has been around for, what, a decade or so now? Possibly the architecture is nearing the end of its life cycle, and if so no one is going to want to spend much to acquire it.

Anyone know how many more years they can squeeze hot stuff out of the Alpha? And is there any margin for cutting the price a bit?

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