Compaq to drop Alpha line?

Five years ago when Compaq announced it was going to take over Digital

Equipment, would continue to develop the Alpha processor and make and sell

powerful servers, it sounded about as empty as it has turned out to be.

Why would the company that has depended for its success in Intel take a

chance on Alpha as a long-term mission critical technology, especially since

Intel was developing a competing 64-bit processor?

Compaq was about as committed to the Alpha success as President Bush is to

lowering energy cost. Not surprisingly, Compaq failed miserably to sell Alpha

systems. In the absence of serious competition from Intel, Compaq had a huge

opportunity to establish Alpha as the 64-bit server platform of choice. But

Compaq largely sat on its hands for four years while Intel failed to produce the

Itanium chip.

In final apparent confirmation that Compaq's failure with the Alpha chip was

probably more by design than by fate, Compaq dropped its "commitment to

Alpha" just a few weeks after Intel formally announced the Itanium.