Microsoft And Compaq Back New Alpha Venture

Welcome Guest. | Log In| Register | Membership Benefits

June 17, 1998 (3:28 PM EDT)

Samsung Electronics formally unwrapped the making of Alpha Processor (API) at a press conference in New York Tuesday, which was formed to promote, develop, and market the Alpha 64-bit microprocessor architecture.

The fabless chip company is depending on Samsung Semiconductor to be the primary source of silicon for Alpha as well as other key components, including static RAM, chipsets and main memory, said Daeje Chin, chairman and CEO of the company based in San Jose.

"One-stop-shopping will help reduce systems cost," he said.

In its first fiscal year, Samsung Electronics (company profile) expects to garner sales of $100 million, said Young Joon Kim, director of product management and business development. Sales growth will be nearly 50 percent in subsequent years, he added.

The Alpha 64-bit architecture already received a vote of confidence last week from Compaq Computer, which will design 64-bit Alpha devices into high-end servers and workstations. API's low-cost, chipset solution will drive new applications and expand industry standard computing, said John Ross, senior vice president and group general manager, enterprise computing group for Compaq, Houston.

Microsoft too, is backing the architecture. The software giant will optimize drivers in Windows NT 5.0 software to get the most out of the Alpha platform, said James Allchin, senior vice president, personal and business systems group for Microsoft, Redmond, Wash. Windows NT 5.0 will implement the X86-to-Alpha binary translator/interpreter dubbed "FX!32" for software applications, letting the same code be written for both the X86 and Alpha platforms.

"We will ship that when it's ready -- we're not waiting for any microprocessors," Allchin said, referring to the introduction delay of Intel's Merced.

The 21164 Alpha microprocessors run at speeds between 466 MHz and 667 MHz, and are being manufactured now on a 0.35-micron process, Kim said. API expects the devices to "soon" be manufactured on 0.25-micron that will enable API to double the speed beyond 1 GHz, he added. Those devices will be available in production "late this year."