Re: dell selling alphas?

[Mike Breen <breenmi pacbell net>]

Yes, Dell sells Alphas.  Dell resells Network Appliance boxes. Initially
they sold a board and box I know rather well based upon EV5.6, and in a
PICMG box with
10 PCI slots, also manufactured by Digital.  Then they designed their own
21164A
board with just the things they needed on it and also designed the very
clever
enclosure with hot plug fans and, as I recall, power supplies.  They were
well along with a successor about which I can't speak.  But Network
Appliance has my unqualified respect, not just for being a "leading edge"
company, but defining the leading edge (as SGI once did).
    Netapp architects could, and perhaps will some day write the book on
optimal use of the superpipelined processor, and another on cache
utilization.
    And they didn't just build "fast".  Their market is on the edges of the
"non-stop" sector.  Banks and corporate web sites like Amazon need very
robust systems.   Too bad Compaq didn't have the wisdom to partner with, or
buy Netapp.  They had the chance.  Dell had the chance and is a partner.
    I have no idea how Dell is doing with the product.  It wasn't their
market in the past, but is where several PC companies want to go, including
Compaq.  I know that no file server product in the industry touches Netapp
for latency.   It takes 2 to 10 times the number of processors for a
Sparcserver to provide equivalent aggregate bandwidth, and Netapp is only
using 21164As at 600 Mhz on their current high end.  I wonder a little where
a next generation Alpha product is, but that is no longer my business.
Remaining the leader using a 4 year old processor is a testimonial to both
the Alpha, and Network Appliance's software architecture.
    I havn't looked at their book value lately, but it can't be long before
Netapp might be able to purchase Compaq - should they want to.   And no, I
don't work for Network Appliance, or, any longer, for Digital/Compaq.  This
is an Alpha conference, and I sometimes can't resist sharing first-hand
experience of potential for Alpha in performance driven markets.  Some
superb engineering was not properly marketed, but that doesn't make it less
impressive an achievement.
    Netapp has created their own "kernel" (see their web site).  They must
be
watching carefully the rumors around the end of support for Alpha (and I
note that you have to look hard to find direct mention of Alpha on
www.netapp.com).  With Tandem moving to Alpha, I believe they may have
little to fear.  And I would love to see what they do with hardware support
for threads (as described in the MicroProcessor Report), perhaps coming in
some future Alpha.  The biggest advantage future Alpha processors have is
memory and I/O bandwidth. The Alpha crossbar architecture is some years
ahead of anything from Intel.  Future Alpha
processors will become nodes in a switching matrix, if the line continues.

Mike Breen
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jiann-Ming Su" <js1@zeus.me.gatech.edu>
To: <axp-list@redhat.com>
Sent: Friday, December 03, 1999 11:52 AM
Subject: dell selling alphas?


> http://www.dell.com/us/en/bsd/products/spec_nasto_760n_storage.htm
>
> Jiann-Ming Su          "People seldom do what they believe in. They do
> js290@prism.gatech.edu   what is convenient, then repent." --Bob Dylan
>
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