| ★ wanayoo — archive 1999 http://informationweek.com/720/compaq.htm | Nouvelle recherche | Portail wanayoo |
|
|
|
February 8, 1999 Alpha-PoweredCompaq releases first workstation with new 64-bit Alpha processor By Tom Davey
 ompaq has begun shipping a new workstation with the latest 64-bit Alpha processor. The XP1000, based on a 500-MHz CPU, is the first Compaq-branded workstation with an Alpha chip--technology the vendor acquired as part of its purchase of Digital Equipment last year.The XP1000 is available with either Windows NT or Tru64 Unix (Compaq's new name for Digital Unix), or both. The XP1000 starts at $7,152 for a model with NT, 128 Mbytes of memory, a 4-Gbyte SCSI hard drive, and an ELSA GLoria Synergy graphics card. The machine also comes standard with 4 Mbytes of Level 2 cache. In its highest-end configuration, the XP1000 includes Tru64 Unix, 2 Gbytes of memory, 54.6 Gbytes of storage, and a PowerStorm 350 graphics card (available in March), for $29,898. Analysts say that even at the low end, XP1000 systems will be attractive to users with computation-intensive tasks involving geographic information systems and other scientific simulation software. "If you're looking for unbelievable floating-point performance on NT at $7,500, this is the product to get," says Jay Moore of Aberdeen Group. "We're very much enamored with its potential," says Greg Gustin, general manager of Top Gun Simulation Development Co. in Orlando, Fla. The company is considering buying several hundred of the machines to use in building applications to train airplane pilots. "We're buying it for the raw power," says Gustin. The only drawbacks, Moore says, are that its graphics boards don't offer the highest quality rendering and that a limited number of applications take advantage of Tru64 Unix. Compaq's two challenges, he says, will be "to get customers to believe in Alpha's viability in the long run and to sign up enough of the right software vendors." 
Back to This Week's Issue
Send Us Your Feedback
Top of the Page
|
 |
|
|
