Compaq's Curly gets nice Alpha makeover

In a special supplement of its customer document - Inform - Capellas was moved to say that Compaq's OpenVMS platform "remains a pillar of key vertical market segments" including healthcare, semiconductor manufacturing, financial services and something called -government.

That follows a story we wrote yesterday based on sources from the Valley which told the INQUIRER VMS is looking more than a tad wobbly and Compaq is incandescent with its long-time pardner Intel. How much nicer he looks in this picture than in the other grim ones we've seen. This is what happens to you when you're in love - you lose years.

Capellas notes in the document that Compaq's AlphaServer Wildfire product line is still the highest performing and most scaleable Unix platform "and will continue to be for the next several years as we move to the Itanium processor family".

Never one to use one word when 10,000 would do, Capellas goes on to commit itself to Tru64 and everything else, so ignoring siren words from HP board member Walter Hewlett, along the following lines:

"Our commitment to high-performance technical computing is to significantly grow our business and maintain our No. 1 market position. Specifically, we will continue the supercomputing product family for the most demanding scientific and technical applications, implementing EV7 and EV79 versions of the AlphaServer SC family and providing ongoing support. We also plan to expand the SC series to include Itanium processor family and Linux implementations.

"Our commitment is to continue implementing our OpenVMS plan-of-record, which includes ongoing support on the upcoming EV7 and EV79 Alpha systems, as well as a continuation of the port and release on Itanium-based systems. We will, as previously stated, migrate our OpenVMS application portfolio, ensuring the ongoing operating environment for our OpenVMS customers and partners.

"Our major focus today for our Tru64 UNIX customers and partners remains unchanged-to deliver on the Alphabased Tru64 UNIX plan-of-record which includes full support on the upcoming Alpha EV7 and EV79 systems as well as further operating system enhancements for our Alpha-based customers.

"HP has a great general purpose data centre UNIX with broad ISV coverage and increasing share momentum. Compaq has great clustering, RAS (reliability, availability, scalability) and performance characteristics, gaining share especially in high- performance technical computing markets. Converging the best of each onto the next generation Itanium-based platforms will provide our customers with the most robust enterprise UNIX on the market.

"As new developments transpire, I will keep you advised. In addition, I encourage you to visit our web site, compaq.com/merger to keep abreast of the latest merger- related news.

"Our commitment is to the NonStop Himalaya roadmap, including significant performance speedups on MIPS and the transition to Itanium-based processors. We have already begun porting the NonStop Kernel to the Itanium processor family. With application compatibility and ServerNet, existing NonStop Himalaya servers will run seamlessly with NonStop Himalaya Itanium-based servers, protecting your investments in existing and future applications.

"Our commitment is to continue implementing the Alpha roadmap per the current plan-of-record, delivering improved performance and faster implementations of the Alpha microprocessor while continuing to provide the most available, scalable systems at the lowest cost. Specifically, this includes our announced plans for EV7 and EV79 versions of the Alpha processor, which will be used in our upcoming "Marvel" systems. As previously announced, these systems will support Tru64 UNIX and OpenVMS, as well as Linux. And, we will continue to sell our Alpha systems as long as there is customer demand, with support continuing to extend a minimum of five years beyond that."

To seal his pledge, Capellas signs the document, giving us a chance to send it our resident graphologist, Old Mother Shipton of Harrogate, who will deliver her verdict later in the week. µ