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Compaq to unveil Tru64 Unix plans tomorrow

Confidential documents show what's up. But let's concentrate on Alpha vs Merced tomorrow...

Tomorrow, The Register will tip up at Digital's old offices at 190 High Holborn to hear about Compaq's solutions for the enterprise. But even though we have seen the NDA slides already, it won't be a futile exercise as we're already well-briefed and so can ask some informed questions. (NB We don't sign NDAs here) as opposed to Untru64? As exclusively revealed in Terry Shannon's insider newsletter Shannon knows Compaq and also revealed on the Web in The Register a month since, D/UX will be renamed Tru64 Unix. Compaq will announce its strategic objectives for Unix in the enterprises, including products, its solutions and how it will market them. It will also announce its TruCluster software V1.6, how it is uniting Windows NT and Unix, and ways in which it will seek to keep the Tandem strategy on track. Tru64 Unix, according to Compaq, will be aimed at both the Alpha and IA64 platforms, while the Tandem Integrity series for Telecom S Series will use Integrity XC -- ProLiant based ENS platforms. It will announce a partnership with SCO for the SMB market, consisting of OpenServer and Unixware. Compaq will claim it has nearly 6,000 optimised 64-bit apps running on Tru64 Unix now, while ISVs have ported 1,000 more over the last year. Part of its plans to grow market share will be to provide interoperability with Unix and Windows NT, with the former aimed at production systems, NT aimed at desktops, and its own Unix/NT solution at the cloudy bit -- application servers -- in the middle. Compaq will claim it is increasing its investment in the Unix part of its business by providing worldwide support and integration services using a base of 3,000 Unix engineers. It will wheel out several corporate customers to back up its claims that Alpha Server based systems are the way to go in the future. An executive from a German company will claim that Alpha is the best R/3 platform in the market because of its combination of a 64-bit CPU and 64-bit OS. It will say D/UX -- sorry Tru64 on Alpha -- provides a proper 64-bit environment. But Compaq will hedge its bets over whether Alpha or Merced is the better architecture, by saying it will provide a single source compatible Unix across both Alpha and Merced systems. Tandem will include Alpha and Tru64 Unix into its NonStop Integrity line, which will include both so-called NonStop clusters and TruCluster software as the means of integration. Version 5.x of Tru64, available next year, will provide application partitioning, high end Alpha symmetric multiprocessing (SMP), and integrated TruCluster and NonStop clustering. Version 5.0 of Tru64, available this year, will provide 10Tb of storage, 286Gb support, multipath I/O, and 4B UID/GID. To market its roadmap, Compaq will announce something it calls AirCover, including a channel franchise ESP programme, Alpha/Unix drivers, solution competence centres, and a worldwide Unix "Ambassador" programme, together with global account teams. On the Tandem side, it will announce two "Integrity Servers" -- the Integrity S Series providing a claimed 99.9999 per cent availability and ProLiant clusters in its Integrity XC series which only seem to provide 99.999 per cent. What is the significance of that extra .9, we wonder? Does it mean the Integrity XC will disappear? Compaq says it is committed to the Integrity XC so that means maybe it won't. But Compaq is avoiding the thorny issue of Alpha vs Merced tomorrow. Intel has stated it will have production samples available for OEMs in June, and ship the product on target for June next year. If Eckhard Pfeiffer, Compaq's CEO, actually bites the bullet and gives the Alpha platform his overwhelming support, what will Intel do? And, given the significance of the Compaq-Tandem-DEC announcements above, what on earth would Compaq need Intel's Merced for? ® Related Stories Alpha pricing could cut Intel's throat Alpha Linux plans emerge SCO ducks as Compaq lets fly Compaq to go product mad within three weeks When all the D/UX are 32 bit we'll have the new name Microsoft and Compaq agree on NT/DUX integration Compaq boots 64-bit NT on Alpha server

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