The last days of Alpha

Compaq is back, boasting super efficient servers based on the super fast 575MHz, 64bit Alpha EV6 processor. For the first time the company that acquired Digital at the beginning of the year has put its name - literally - to Digital's home-made processor.

And it won't stop there. Next year we can expect to see a Compaq-badged machine sporting a 1GHz Alpha. Surely this is the clearest indication yet that Alpha's new owner sees a healthy future for the Risc chip? Appearances can be deceptive.

The simple truth is that the future of business servers belongs to Wintel - Intel machines running Microsoft Windows NT. Digital suspected as much in its final years of independence, software developers know it, and Compaq knows it too.

Far from representing the rebirth of Alpha, the product announcements of the last few days are the involuntary reflexes of a dying breed.

Compaq won't tell you in so many words that Alpha's relevance is limited. For that you must read between the lines. Joe McNally, VP and UK MD, recently appeared on Silicon.com and declared: "In the short term we will continue to invest very heavily in the Digital architecture... so probably for the next two or three years the choice is up to the individual client."

And after that? Take a guess.

McNally himself accepted the possibility that everything might ultimately be ported to an NT platform. The NT platform of choice today is the Pentium. The NT platform of choice in three years time will be Merced - not only another Intel processor but a 64bit one at that. It makes little sense for Compaq to invest heavily in Alpha - a direct competitor to Merced - and risk upsetting its lucrative relationship with Intel.

In the aftermath of acquisition, Compaq boss Eckhard Pfeiffer said his company would continue to support Alpha. In the lexicon of IT, 'support' is something akin to, "Well you can buy it from us if you really want to."

Compaq bought Digital for its customer base, for its services and for its strong ties with Microsoft. It did not buy Digital for Alpha.