Compaq Phases Out Alpha Chip

By 2004, Compaq will have phased out all its high-end server production, abandoning its Alpha chip and leaving the field to next-generation Itanium microprocessors being developed by Hewlett-Packard and Intel.

Compaq's speedy 64-bit Alpha microprocessor is used for some of the most advanced and demanding scientific research. Both the National Science Foundation and French Atomic Energy Commission use clusters of AlphaServers to simulate the impact of nuclear explosions, and the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center uses Alpha to predict complex weather patterns.

Compaq intends to support Alpha architecture through 2003, but the following year it will consolidate its entire 64-bit server family on the Itanium architecture. As part of its joint engineering agreement, Compaq is transferring significant Alpha microprocessor and compiler technology, tools, and resources to Intel. The new family of Compaq enterprise servers will support Tru64™ UNIX, OpenVMS™, and NonStop™ Kernel.

For more details on this development, see the following press releases:

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010625/tc/tech_compaq_intel_dc_3.html

http://www.compaq.com/newsroom/pr/2001/pr2001062501.html