[Info-vax] x86-64-based Superdomes on the way (says HP)

[JF Mezei]

MG wrote:

> Who is going to buy an expensive x86-64 Superdome when a cheap 'Dell'
> (or whatever) can be had... the main selling point of x86-64, it being
> cheap and thus disposable.


When you have a serious mission critical application, you want powerful
hardware that is well built with "carrier grade" hardware and power,
ventilation etc.


Remember that superdomes are now  glorified blade enclosures with the
added benefit of shared memory between blades, thanks to quickpath
interconnects via the backpane. (smartly done).


If HP-UX customers can move their oracle apps to Linux on x86, then they
would remain HP customers. And if they can buy a superdome blade
enclosure and populate it with some IA64 to run HP-UX and then load 8086
blades to run Liux, they can port gracefully and keep the investment in
the same superdome blade cabinet.



At this point in time, short of Meg Whitman making a strong pitch for
HP=UX/Tandem/VMS, their demise will be a self fulfilling prophecy.
Remember when HP started to state that VAX-VMS customers wanted a stable
environment and did not want VMS 8.* version as had been promised ?

Whitman jut said that IA64 customers want a stable environment.

If Whitman wants to reverse the downsizing of BCS, one sign would be a
revision of the VMS roadmap to include plans for a next version (as
opposed to fluffy features not assigned any timeframe or version)

Also, the second CEOs start talking about reduction in revenues isntead
of growth potential, it means they have written off that division as
having no future.

Instead of pushing for Hobbyist programme, there should be a push to
open source VMS 8.3, including all the tools necessary to build VMS.