Maybe it's time for a most of us to start exploring new career
paths.  When Intel's bad processor designs are all that's left because
of Microsoft's huge marketing budgets, I suspect that most of the
people in our field who care about quality engineering will be
disappointed and disgruntled to the point of considering a move to a
field like veterinary medicine.

  That's my run-on sentence of the day, by the way.


           -Dave

On February 10, Chris Quayle wrote:
> Someone sent this to me today - and yes, I know it's off topic...
> 
> /* ----------------------------------------- */
> 
> THE BEGINNING OF THE END FOR DIGITAL?S ALPHA
> 
> A senior industry analyst has predicted that Digital?s 64bit Alpha
> microprocessor will be gradually phased out, following Compaq?s buy-out
> of
> the company last week.
> 
> However, Clive Longbottom, VP of market research firm, The Meta Group,
> said
> it is unlikely Compaq will jettison the chip before the millennium.
> 
> Alpha has one big advantage over current Intel technology and that?s
> 64bit
> memory addressing. Intel Pentium chips are 32bit, which means the
> operating system that sits on top has to be 32bit or less. Consequently,
> Alpha is still better for large database applications like Oracle 9 and
> Parallel.
> 
> According to Longbottom, Alpha will be phased out when Intel?s 64bit
> Merced
>  chip and Microsoft?s Windows NT 5.0 are ready. "Merced is slated
> to hit the streets in 1999, as is NT 5.0 which supports 64bit memory
> addressing. However, even with a 1999 shipping date, there?ll be more
> delays
> because of Year 2000 issues. Once that?s over, there?ll be no need for
> Alpha, " he said.
> 
> In the short term, Longbottom expects Compaq to continue to support
> Alpha.
> "What you?ll see are companies running Oracle databases on NT
> servers, on Alpha chips with a Compaq badge on the desktop."
> 
> Compaq and Digital refused to comment.
> 
> Nick Gilbert Chief Reporter 0181 563 1000
> 
> /* -------------------------------------- */
> 
> The takeover of Digital was the most depressing news i've heard in ages
> - worked for digital in  Reading in the eighties and though the some of
> the line managers were terminally retentive, they also had some of the
> best engineers i've worked with - I guess quality really is going out of
> fashion...
> 
> Chris