[Info-vax] OT: Intel Demos 48-Core Prototype Chip

[Neil Rieck]

On Dec 6, 10:00 am, JF Mezei <jfmezei.spam... at vaxination.ca> wrote:
> Neil Rieck wrote:
> > management, then they will already be porting OpenVMS to x86-64.
> > QUESTION: Why would they do this? ANSWER: There is still value in
> > selling OpenVMS-based software.
>
> How much of an application portfolio does HP have with VMS ? The image I
> have is that HP has the core operating system (with SIPs like
> clustering, volume shadowing), and a couple of system management tools.
> The rest has either been retired or sold off.
>
> Also, I am not sure that HP is a software company.  Remember that ESS is
> now ESN. Software was removed and replaced with Networking.
>
> It will be a while before the team in India has enough people with
> sufficient experience to accept a project as large as porting to a new
> platform.
>
> They may have the drones who can recompile and package stuff, but they
> still need a large enough team of experienced people to do the big
> porting stuff at the console/kernel/driver level. Having a couple of
> experienced folks isn't enough.
>
> So the covert port of VMS that was done in the basement of ZKO has
> probably been shelved for many years, unless HP is covertly hiring ex
> VMS engineers who would do such a covert port in their own covert basement.

Well, when we moved from VAX to Alpha I remember Compaq being VERY
interested in selling us new licenses for our layered products.
Through their trade-in program we received 50% discounts but I still
remembering paying big bucks for: "128 User", "FMS User", "FMS
Development", BASIC Compiler ($25K), C, C++, etc. We had some problems
activating a second CPU in our DS-20e only to discover that we needed
a license for that too! We didn't bother upgrading our "host-based
shadow license" as we were moving to controller-based RAID. We were
asked about buying "TCPIP Services for OpenVMS" but declined since our
applications were tied to TCPware.

I attended an OpenVMS licensing seminar a few years back and was told
that HP was simplifying OpenVMS Licensing for Itanium. I'm not sure if
simplified licensing has happened with OpenVMS on Alpha (maybe someone
else could provide more recent information)

NSR