[Info-vax] Dave Cutler, Prism, DEC, Microsoft, etc.

[JF Mezei]

Michael Kraemer wrote:

> Only if one presumes that DEC actually wanted to win the lawsuit.
> It is more likely that DEC simply wanted to put some
> pressure on intel so they could get rid of Alpha.
>  From this point of view DEC actually succeeded.


Palmer was already in talks with Pfeiffer when the Intel stuff came up.
So it was really Compaq telling DEC that it wasn't interested in buying
the chip business, so Palmer found a way to get rid of the money losing
stuff.

This is quite different from Cutler since at the time Cutler left,
Digital had not yet begun to self cannabalise so it would be small
enough to be bought by someone. Although DEC had stopped growing, it
wasn't clear at that time that its had begun what would end up being a
terminal decline a decade later. DEC's desire to be Microsoft's poodle
had not yet begun, so when Cutler left, there would have been no reason
for DEC to "give away" its valuable IP to a competitor.