“Compaq today concluded its sale of the AltaVista entity to
CMGI. … Yesterday, Compaq sold its embedded chip business to
Smart Modular Technologies… Deciding what, if any, division goes
next depends on what direction Compaq takes, and that choice won’t
be easy. Several Digital units seem to have questionable or
difficult long-term futures ahead of them, but they generate
much-needed revenue now.
Tru64 Unix, the Unix technology Compaq inherited from Digital,
and the Alpha chip platform, again from Digital, represent two of
the larger dilemmas for Compaq.”
“One area that might make sense for cuts is Windows NT on
the Alpha chip. Terry Shannon, editor of the Shannon Knows
Compaq newsletter, said today he’s heard unconfirmed reports that
Compaq plans to cut some of its NT developers in Bellevue,
Washington. The Alpha chip is the current basis for development of
64-bit versions of Windows.
Shannon said he ‘believes Compaq has seen the handwriting on the
wall. The Windows NT operating system runs on a relatively small
number of AlphaServers,’ he said. ‘Compaq’s recent and increasing
emphasis on Linux as an Alpha volume expansion solution represents
a significant shift in the DEC/Compaq volume strategy.’ “