Triflex makes way for Intel PCI technology.

Compaq was forced to eat humble pie and swallow its pride last week as it abandoned its own Triflex architecture for Intel's PCI architecture and Pentium Pro machines.

Two years ago, Compaq rejected Intel's motherboard designs for its Pentium SMP servers but reluctantly joined Intel's MP standard without implementing it.

Last October, systems product manager at Compaq UK Hugh Jenkins said his firm was 'cautious' about rolling out SMP chips without first testing them thoroughly (PC Dealer, 18 October).

Jenkins said that without a systems accreditation structure, its competitors could not hope to implement high-end SMP systems.

But now the picture has changed. Jenkins said last week: 'When it comes to the Pentium Pro, Intel can provide us with most of the architectural building blocks to replace what we were doing with Triflex.'

The company will use PCI technology for its own range of servers, following the lead of ALR, Digital, Dell and AST. 'In days gone by, we did it ourselves and developed ASICs to do the SMP bus, but it was a proprietary development,' said Jenkins.

'Triflex is the bee's knees and we still have it in our Pentium servers.

But the fact is that for the Pentium Pro, Intel can give us all the system building blocks we need.

'Intel has gone ahead of us so we can use our research and development in different ways,' said Jenkins. 'They can concentrate on developing stuff like Raid disk controllers and systems management and there is more than enough engineering yet to do.'

It is believed that the only proprietary buses left in the Pentium Pro class SMP market belong to non-Intel companies.

The move reflects a clear victory for Intel to set its own standard.