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

[JF Mezei]

Michael Kraemer wrote:

> I think we all know the value of committments on paper.
> Actions speak louder than words.
> Handing over the flagship product to a direct competitor
> in 1997, just 5 years after Alpha's introduction,
> sent a strong negative signal.


It wasn't so much the gift of the chip manufacturing that was the issue
but rather the fine print at the end of the deal where Digital committed
to porting Digital Unix (Tru64) to that then imaginary IA64 thing, but
did not commit to porting VMS to it. It is ironic that under HP, the
opposite happened.

The theft of Alpha IP happened before Pentium 3 was released, years
before.  DEC let it go unchallenged for years before finally using that
card to get something from Intel (releive DEC of its chip business which
Compaq didn't want).


> Customers' comments in the trade press (at least in German),
> including DECUS board members, were mainly negative,
> certainly not enthusiastic.

At that point, it wasn't so much Alpha but Digital. People noticed
Palmer breaking up the company piece by piece.


> No conspiracy here. From 2000 onwards IBM manufactured Alpha's,
> just as they produced HP's PA-RISC chips.

>From the time when Digital sold its chip manufacturing business, it was
perfectly normal that Digital would outsource manufacturing of its own
chips to the remaining manufacturers, whether Intel, IBM or any other.