FW: Can we have a moment of silence (or several million dollars) . . . please?

[Schilling, Richard]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael Huntingdon [mailto:hunting at ix.netcom.com] 
> Sent: Monday, June 25, 2001 4:33 PM
> Sounds like exactly the same argument we heard about Alpha for so many
> years. Perhaps DEC and Compaq have not been lining their 
> pockets after all.
> 
> ~m

[snip]

The irony behind the DEC story and Alpha for me is the fact that the
microprocessor and Alphaserver platform really kicked butt performance wise,
but the company couldn't make it work financially (that's why they sold out
to Compaq).  Had DEC not folded, and had work on the chip continued like it
did in the early days, it could have easily kept outperforming its
competition.  

I'll just have to settle for an aftermarket Alpha mini in my garage when
they become available. . . .

> 
> 
> At 06:05 PM 6/25/01 -0400, you wrote:
> >On Mon, Jun 25, 2001 at 03:21:32PM -0400, Thomas Lovie wrote:
> >> 
> >> it's unclear which definition of 'better' will be used...
> >
> >I believe that 'more profitable' is the only definition
> >of 'better' with any relevance to the situation.
> >

I bet Intel just puts a new name on the processor. . . bet ya, yup - you
can't improve on near-perfection. . .

Profit is certainly an underlying factor here.  The DEC and Compaq story is
an interesting one.  Wouldn't be surprised if Compaq simply walks away from
the PC/midrange/big-iron market alltogether.  If you can't pay the
engineers, you can't keep the candy store . . . 

But, regardless of what is happening everyone knows Intel, Compaq and IBM
had the biggest case of penis envy for years because DEC out engineered them
all.  There's some comfort in that.  Here's to all the engineers that made
DEC rule the mainframe world . . . (sip).

I am curious about how much money Intel et. al. figures they'll make in
migration and porting services by removing the alpha chip.  Could be ziltch,
but it'd be interesting to know.  Hey, anyone wanna hire a consultant?
http://www.nationalinformatics.com  


> >--Bob
> >

Richard Schilling
Webmaster / Web Integration Programmer
Affiliated Health Services
Mount Vernon, WA USA
http://www.affiliatedhealth.org
phone: 360.856.7129
>