Alpha kit gets Compaq makeover

Hardware Vendor repositions its proprietary workstations running Windows NT for high end of the market.

Compaq has begun the assimilation of Digital in the wake of itsg Windows NT for high end of the market. takeover by changing its workstation strategy, stating that Alpha processors will be pitched at the top end of the market.

Robin Shuff, workstation product manager at Digital UK, said Compaq-Digital workstations will be 32-bit and 64-bit machines, all running Windows NT.

'The traditional workstation market is declining but is still worth a large piece of the market,' Shuff said.

He added: 'At the top end, we will have our A and AU products running NT and Unix, so we will have a range of products with Compaq logos on them by autumn.'

Shuff claimed Digital users will have an easier migration to 64-bit technology because Sun and Hewlett Packard processors use a different structure and data will have to be converted for them.

'Sun and HP, with their big end strategy, will have problems because of their data,' he said. 'Alpha is an absolutely true 64-bit data structure but we can offer a uniquely 64-bit platform as soon as NT 5 comes along - you don't have to wait for (Intel's next processor) Merced.'

Hugh Jenkins, head of corporate enterprise computing at Compaq UK, said the vendor will now offer workstations running on the Intel Xeon processor, using Slot One and Slot Two architectures, but at the high end will offer the XP range, which will run either 64-bit NT or Unix on the Alpha platform.

Jenkins said: 'Alpha products will remain in the high-end XP slot. Alpha supports 64-bit NT and 64-bit Unix and Compaq will invest in 64-bit Unix.'