[Info-vax] Did Ken Olsen kill Alpha?

[Kenneth Fairfield]

On Saturday, October 15, 2011 4:14:26 AM UTC-7, Neil Rieck wrote:
[...]

> Now think about it for a moment, the chip that became Alpha was kept
> alive by someone from 1988 to 1992 and only conspiracy theorists
> believe this group was run without the knowledge of upper management.

[...]

I think two issues often get lost when discussing what
happened with Palmer and Alpha.  First, Palmer was head
of the DEC fab(s) when Alpha was being developed, and
when he took over from Olsen.  Second, fabs are *very* 
*expensive* if you're trying to keep up with the
technology curve: you really *must* have volume to keep
them affordable, something Alpha never had in spite of
Palmer's wet dreams about Windows...

The cost of the fabs was probably the single biggest
driver in the Intel lawsuit (IMHO).  Palmer hoped he 
could proceed with Alpha using the fabless model.
Unfortunately, while Intel and IBM do support fabbing
other companies' products, they rarely do so on their
latest technology.  That put Alpha at a permanent 
technology disadvantage.  (It's also much, much harder
to debug a new shrink in the fabless model: you simply
don't get the quick turn-around of fixes that you do
if you own the fab and its scheduling.)

Since Intel is the big gorilla in terms of fabs, which
they can afford because of their relatively huge volume,
I'm actually surprised that IBM has been able to keep
up.  I know IBM is big.  I know IBM sells premium priced
high-end systems.  I'm still amazed that they're able
to afford both the R&D and the actual construction costs
of cutting-edge fab technology.

    -Ken