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Compaq sees Linux as selling Alpha chips
phlebas writes "Cnet news has an article about how "Compaq Computer sees Linux as a way to increase sales of its Alpha microprocessor, and the company is trying to encourage other Linux distributors besides Red Hat to support the chip." They ar also plannig to "soon introduce new pricing geared to encourage Linux users to "step up" from Intel to Alpha chips." Maybe after all i'll be able to get one those in my lifetime " I think it's pretty clear that Linux is the way for Compaq's to really push the Alpha-let's hope they actually do it.
Comparing a new Intel to an old Alpha? Not very fair is it? Try comparing the 21264 to a PIII and you'll think different. Just bought a 500mhz alpha + mobo for $450. Even under emulation on NT, it runs faster than a Pro 200mhz. I/O is night and day (150% faster). This isn't even with native apps or 64-bit code. Goodbye Intel...Hello Alpha.
In the Bad Old Days, "big iron" vendors wrote OSs mostly for the purpose of selling their iron. The margin on such an OS is low (perhaps negative), but the tie-in value is high.
The problem with this is that you have to spend a tremendous R&D budget "keeping up with the Joneses". If you don't, you're selling a second-rate OS and thus a second-rate platform. Realize that this is R&D _just to tread water_, not to gain share.
This problem is made worse by the fact that Linux is already ported to Alphas. The "Joneses" have a tremendous R&D budget, measured in terms of engineering hours as opposed to dollars. Compaq is likely unable to keep Digital Unix up with Linux.
The worst part is that, if they keep developing Digital Unix to compete with Linux on their own platform, they split the application base. Some shops won't be able to afford to port to two Alpha platforms. The application base splits, the user base splits, and you again lose market share.
Pushing Linux is the perfect solution for Compaq. Sure, they lose their OS revenue. They also drop a huge R&D budget, merge the Alpha Unix user base into one critical mass, and assure them that they will have a state-of-the-art OS, regardless of Compaq's corporate decisions. They can also direct their attention to selling _hardware_ versus _hardware and OS_. The OS will take care of itself. They also drop the price of an Alpha to the point where people can seriously consider putting it on their desktop _and_ their backend servers.
They can still sell support contracts at a higher rate than any other support organization, because they have the Name and because they sell the hardware. They can produce new hardware drivers cheap, by pre-releasing specs to select groups of users. And the R&D money they save can become a capital investment in chip fabricators. Intel has the big chip fab investments today, which is why they have such a price/performance ratio. If Compaq sinks money into chip fabs, and does it well, they can again drop the price of an Alpha. They can increase sales volume and margin simultaneously.
In short, Compaq loses a direct source of revenue by pushing Linux. They also lose a lot of indirect costs and market share, and stand to make more profit in other ways by pushing Linux. Trust me, the dollar signs say that they're doing the right thing.
I doubt a high-end free fortran is in the forseeable future (but hopefully I'm wrong).
:) Not that I could, anyway; he's across campus from me, and I ssh into his machine from mine).
:(
In applications for which Fortran is appropriate, performance tends to count. When we bought the dual PII linux box last year, we paid about $10k for the box, and another $1k for absoft fortran (a cray derivative), imsl, and a set of multiprocesor libraries. Had there been a free alternative, we probably still would have bought this over a 10% difference in performance--and it's much more than that. Also, we need F90 features, and could have used F95 (there's places that i have to write several lines of F90 to duplicate F95 features, and I'd kill for true arrays of pointers).
Then again, what we *really* want is Digital Fortran for Linux. It sounds like they're working on it in house, but haven't decided whether to go ahead. Had it been available, we probably wouldn't have even looked at any of the alternatives.
/flamebait{}
Open source meant absolutely nothing to us in this decision. We took linux for it's stability (ok, and I probably wouldn't have agreed to work for him if it meant I had to use NT
We needed the most bang for the bucks he'd been budgetted, and on a stable system. The choices came down to linux x86, alpha linux (too risky a year ago), and alpha DU. Given the prices that month, the x86 with linux was the best choice. Though it's a pity we couldn't have waited another month (the money would have gone *poof*), as we had to take 333's since a dual MB for 100mhz wasn't out yet
And for the record, we're tickled pink with Absoft. The tech support is spectacular; usually by the next day, and frequently the same day if we write in the morning. I even got a message back from they're tech support after I posted a question (thought it was general F90) in comp.languages.fortran. The real kicker: their tech support gets back to us every time faster than NAG sales ever got back [I've been told since then that NAG tech support is also faster than NAG sales. I have no idea how you stay in business that way.
/end flamebait for "GPL uber alles" crowd
I doubt it. By embracing Linux, they gain a shot at the home market which would never pay for a DU license. It allows them to break into a whole new market.
For people who need servers, though, they'll still be able to sell DU licenses, because DU does have some features that Linux lacks. For example, Digital's Fortran compiler is a lot better than g77. That's still important for people who need to support lots of legacy code.
So they gain in the home market, without hurting their server market too much. Well worth it.
Also worth noting is that Alphas have been available with NT for years now. Embracing NT probably dropped more DU licenses than Linux would, and NT doesn't gain you much of anything on the home front.
This company has some *KILLER* Alpha boxen, they have enough horsepower to blow away *ANY* PII,PIII box on the market. And the kicker is, that they use industr standard peripherals! Standard PCI Video cards, SCSI controllers, standard DIMMS, standard USB stuff... My Alpha board is very similar to my fiance's ASUS P2B Intel based board.
Now I think you should check on that CPU fan thing though. Mine has a honking HUGE fan on it! And, well... All CPU's use IRQ's, it's just up to the BIOS/Operating System, as to how they are implemented. You are correct in that my board assignes an IRQ to a slot though, not a peripheral.
Michael J. Ball
Open Source Who's Who
http://support.lcg.org/Whoswho/ unix_guru@hotmail.com
From the specs I've seen, if Compaq wants to "help" Linux the best thing they could do would be to donate some time to gcc on Alpha. Everything I've seen shows Digital Unix (oh errr I mean "Tru64 Unix") cc being up to twice as fast as gcc. Getting a fast box is somewhat useless if the compiler throughs away even a quarter of your performance.
Not bad.
Gotta call 'em about buying just parts tho.
--
As long as each individual is facing the TV tube alone, formal freedom poses no threat to privilege.
"Reactionaries must be deprived of the right to voice their opinions; only the people have that right." - Mao
See http://www.alphalinux.org/.
It's officially funded by Compaq (DEC), and usually has better information than the other places.
Don't forget the Compaq braintrust really only understands selling hardware and selling services.
DU helps them in the short term because it gets them in the door for the big unix-based datacenter market (along with Sun, HP, IBM), but if a couple years Linux/Alpha can get them in there, I don't see much of a future for Tru64.
Apparently Compaq is treating the VMS community like a redheaded stepchild. Unlike DEC, Compaq will probably much quicker to drop their legacy base when it suits them.
--
Business. Numbers. Money. People. Computer World.
Promoting GNU/Linux to the point that new installations go there instead of to other 'nix's helps Compaq get back to what the really want to do anyway. Ultimately, they downsize the software part of the business and keep a smaller coding force on hand to continue 'nix development for GNU/Linux solutions.
As for finding Alpha systems cheap,look at places like WebAuction (run by Micro/PC/MAC Warehouse) for deals. I picked up an Alpha box from them for $350, added 4.6GB HD, 24X CD-ROM, 128MB additional RAM, 17" Monitor, 56K/V90 external Dava/Voice/Fax modem, NT4 Workstation, MS Office Pro, and the Alpha firmware for a total cost under $2500 by shopping the web and local computer shows.
D. Keith Higgs
CWRU. Kelvin Smith Library
My office has been taken over by iPod people.