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Approved-By:  10-Nov-1992 1614 <decnews@MR4DEC.ENET.DEC.COM>
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Date:         Tue, 10 Nov 1992 13:22:42 PST
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From:         10-Nov-1992 1614 <decnews@mr4dec.enet.dec.com>
Subject:      DECNEWS... Special Alpha AXP Announcement Issue

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    |  D E C N E W S                                                      |
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    |                F O R   E D U C A T I O N   A N D   R E S E A R C H  |
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    November 10, 1992                                         Vol. 1, No. 9

    ***********************************************************************
    *************** SPECIAL ALPHA AXP ANNOUNCEMENT ISSUE: *****************
    ***************  21ST CENTURY COMPUTING STARTS TODAY  *****************
    ***********************************************************************


    IN THIS ISSUE:
             Announcements
             . First Alpha AXP Systems Ready to Ship
             . Over 1,000 Vendors Agree to Support Alpha AXP
             . Alpha-Ready Upgrade Program Improved
             . New Services Help Integrate Alpha AXP

             Customer News
             . Prototype System Users Applaud Alpha AXP
             . University of Edinburgh Finds Performance `Impressive'
             . University of Texas Lauds Speed, Ease of Use
             . Research Institute Easily Ports Astrophysics Tool
             . Software Firm Expects New Tools to Yield Breakthroughs


    "DECNEWS for Education and Research" is a monthly electronic
    publication from Digital Equipment Corporation's Education Business
    Unit for the education and research communities worldwide.  For
    instructions on how to subscribe, copy supporting documents, and use
    other pertinent commands, please see the end of this newsletter.


    1ST ALPHA AXP SYSTEMS READY TO SHIP...................................

    Today, Digital is introducing the first set of 64-bit Alpha AXP
    systems and software designed to run complex applications faster
    and with the best price/performance in the industry.  Digital is
    announcing the 21st century Alpha AXP platform today in Rio de Janeiro,
    Sydney, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Toronto, London, San Jose, and Boston.

    Systems announced today range from workstations to mainframe-class
    servers that set new industry performance standards.  Among them are
    the DEC 3000 AXP deskside and desktop workstations and servers, DEC
    4000 AXP departmental systems, DEC 7000 AXP data center servers, and
    DEC 10000 AXP mainframe-class servers.  Also being introduced are a
    comprehensive software suite of languages, tools, and utilities, and a
    complete new portfolio of services.

    Available today are the DEC 3000 AXP workstations and servers, DEC 4000
    AXP systems, and the DEC 7000 AXP servers.  The DEC 10000 AXP servers
    will be available in the first quarter of '93.

    Alpha AXP is the first universal platform, offering a choice of
    three open software environments -- DEC OSF/1 for Alpha AXP (UNIX),
    OpenVMS AXP, and Windows NT -- and a choice of open standards, hardware
    and software interconnects, and vendors.  The platform supports
    tomorrow's style of computing while supporting today's applications --
    speeding up and enhancing their functionality at affordable prices.

    The new high-performance systems will enable researchers to solve more
    complex problems, obtain research results more quickly, and address
    challenges previously considered impractical or unfeasible.  With
    virtually unlimited 64-bit computing power, the net result will be
    higher productivity and greater opportunity for discovery at lower
    costs.

    Alpha AXP systems can also help reduce costs in education and improve
    the quality of instruction.  The new systems will enable users to
    fully exploit advanced technologies such as multimedia, virtual
    reality, imaging, artificial intelligence, language translation,
    advanced simulation, and voice recognition -- spawning a whole new
    world of opportunities for teaching and learning.

    Based on the world's fastest microprocessor, as it is officially
    described in the Guinness Book of Records, Alpha AXP systems will also
    foster the use of existing applications in more innovative ways, such
    as downsizing mainframe applications to client/server networks.

    Unlike IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Sun RISC systems, Alpha AXP computing
    offers true 64-bit addressing -- four billion times the data addressing
    capacity of current 32-bit systems.  The additional computing capacity
    and speed available from Digital's 64-bit RISC architecture will meet
    computing needs for the next 25 years as new applications and systems
    become available.

    To give customers the widest choice of solutions, Digital is actively
    recruiting partners and will sell its products at all levels of
    integration -- chips, boards, systems, boxes, software, solutions, and
    integration.  Digital now has more than 35 Alpha AXP partners including
    Olivetti, Cray Research, Kubota Pacific, Aeon Systems, and Raytheon.

    * Press release on Alpha AXP computing, news0901.txt
    * "New today from Digital" product descriptions, news0902.txt
    * Alpha AXP OpenVMS systems performance data -- including CERNLIB, SPEC
      Integer, SPEC Floating Point, Drystone, and Linpack -- and benchmarks
      for applications such as X-PLOR and CHARMm; news0904.txt


    OVER 1,000 VENDORS AGREE TO SUPPORT ALPHA AXP.........................

    Over 1,000 independent software vendors have announced that they will
    port more than 2,000 applications to the Alpha AXP platform running the
    OpenVMS AXP or DEC OSF/1 for Alpha AXP operating systems. At today's
    Alpha AXP announcement event in Boston, over 85 of these applications
    are being demonstrated, including Maple V, AMPAC, the Wisconsin
    Package, and Kepler software.  Digital has been working aggressively
    with suppliers of education and research applications to ensure that
    the leading programs will run on the new Alpha systems.  To support
    application migration, Digital has shipped more than 800 AXP systems to
    software developers and opened more than 30 Application Migration
    Centers worldwide.  A complete CASE and runtime environment, including
    19 new layered software products announced today, is now available to
    all developers through these centers.

    * List of over 90 vendors that have announced their intent to port over
      150 education- and research-related applications to the Alpha AXP
      platform, news0903.txt


    ALPHA-READY UPGRADE PROGRAM IMPROVED.................................

    With the Alpha AXP announcement, Digital has dramatically improved its
    Alpha-ready Upgrade Program to make it easier for customers to buy VAX-
    and MIPS-based systems today and upgrade to Alpha AXP systems in the
    future.  Several Alpha-ready VAX system entry prices were reduced, and
    new business practices were introduced to enable customers to move
    software licenses easily and efficiently to Alpha AXP systems.  All
    OpenVMS and ULTRIX DECsystem products are "Alpha-ready."  They support
    the same software, data, applications, networks, clusters, and
    peripherals as Alpha AXP systems.  This protects over 85 percent of
    customers' typical computing investments in hardware, software, and
    training.  With Alpha-ready upgrades, Digital protects the other 15
    percent of customers' investments -- the central processor itself.


    NEW SERVICES HELP INTEGRATE ALPHA AXP................................

    Digital has expanded its services portfolio to include new migration,
    training, and consultation services for customers moving their UNIX,
    OpenVMS, and soon, Windows NT, to Alpha AXP systems.  From "do-it-
    yourself" to customized, six levels of migration services packages are
    offered to help customers transition to Alpha AXP while protecting
    existing investments.  Digital currently services more than 14,000
    products from 1,300 vendors.  The new services are designed to smoothly
    integrate Alpha AXP technology with existing multivendor environments.
    Also, Digital is currently extending DECathena, a systems management
    solution for distributed client/server environments, to the DEC OSF/1
    AXP client and full server platforms.  In addition, Digital is offering
    new design-in and support services to its Alpha AXP partners to help
    them build, deliver, and support Alpha-based products.


    PROTOTYPE SYSTEM USERS APPLAUD ALPHA AXP.............................

    "The performance on the DEC 7000 AXP system ranges from fast to
    unbelievably fast.  One particular application completed so
    quickly that we thought it had crashed due to a coding error."
                                    -- Joel Richon, Computer Scientist
    			               Space Telescope Science Institute
    			               Maryland, U.S.A.

    "Digital has hit a home run with Alpha, and I don't think anyone is
    going to surpass Alpha anytime soon.  It's an all new architecture, a
    complete generation beyond other manufacturers' systems."
                                    -- Dr. Andrew Holder, President
    			               Semichem
    			               Missouri, U.S.A.

    "I have never seen anything like this chip.  I feel like it's all
    I can do to hold onto my keyboard... I'd like to have an Alpha AXP chip
    in every computer we own.  Once you've computed on an Alpha AXP system,
    you don't ever want to go back."
                                    -- Dr. Monte Pettitt, Professor
         	                       Chemistry and Computer Science
    			               University of Houston, U.S.A.

    "My first reaction on running my code on the machine was quite
    simply -- amazement.  The processing speed is quite obviously
    huge, and the time taken for the code to run on the machine is
    now dominated by the time it takes for the machine to read data
    into memory."
                                    -- Barry Wilkes, Department of Physics
    			               University of Edinburgh, Scotland

    "Digital's Alpha AXP architecture is a leading example of
    next-generation computing and will catalyze development of
    previously unattainable applications."
                                    -- David Vellante, Vice President of
                                        Systems, Storage, and Software
                                        Research
              		               International Data Corp., U.S.A


    UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH FINDS PERFORMANCE `IMPRESSIVE'..............

    The Computing Services Department at the University of Edinburgh in
    Scotland manages 8,000 active computer users who interwork via an
    FDDI/Ethernet local area network and X.25 wide area network.  These
    networks interconnect a range of multivendor systems including some 700
    UNIX workstations, 100 multi-user systems, file stores, and archivers.
    The Computing Services Department has been using a prototype DEC 7000
    AXP system to run science applications being run on Hewlett-Packard,
    Cray, VAX, and IBM systems.  The department found the porting of
    FORTRAN code "surprisingly easy," and performance at first sight
    "impressive" -- even when compared to specialist high-performance
    systems.   The group was also pleased with the VEST method for moving
    utilities to AXP systems without re-compilation.

    Contact: Brian Murdock, VMS System Manager, University of Edinburgh's
    Computing Services Department, erca01@ercvax.edinburgh.ac.uk


    UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS LAUDS SPEED, EASE OF USE........................

    The University of Texas (UT) Computation Center is a service provider
    to the UT at Austin and 14 other institutions in the UT system.  The
    center manages its own computing environment, including Apple, Digital,
    Control Data Corp., IBM, Sun, and multivendor PC systems.  As a test
    site for the DEC 4000 Model 610 AXP system, the U.S. center focused on
    integrating the new computer into its education environment.  This
    included transferring local management software from its VAXcluster,
    reviewing its training and system usage documentation, and porting
    publicly available software.  The center concluded that the system's
    best features are its speed and support of a production-oriented
    operating system, OpenVMS AXP.  The group asserts that equally
    important to its speed is the system's stable, well documented
    operating system with tools that can be easily used by a first-time
    computer user.

    Contact: Thomas Linscomb, UT's Manager of VMS Services,
    Linscomb@utxvms.cc.utexas.edu


    RESEARCH INSTITUTE EASILY PORTS ASTROPHYSICS TOOL...................

    The School of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study
    (IAS) in New Jersey, U.S.A., provides a unique atmosphere for research
    in broad areas of theoretical physics, and a stimulating academic
    environment for developing scientists and professors.  As participants
    in Digital's Alpha AXP test project, the Natural Sciences team recently
    migrated an image processing program named CASSANDRA to the Alpha AXP
    platform.  Consisting of 100,000 lines of FORTRAN code, CASSANDRA is
    used to perform interactive scientific analysis and presentation of
    astrophysical data.  In porting CASSANDRA, the team was "extremely
    satisfied" with the compatibility between VAX and Alpha AXP FORTRAN.
    Most of the migration time was spent correcting errors found by Alpha
    AXP FORTRAN that had gone undetected by VAX FORTRAN.  The group also
    tested the new DEC 4000 Model 610 AXP system, and was "very impressed"
    with its speed -- which will be used to locate distant objects in the
    universe.

    Contact: David Saxe, IAS Senior Computer Scientist, Saxe@iassns.bitnet


    SOFTWARE FIRM EXPECTS NEW TOOLS TO YIELD BREAKTHROUGHS..............

    The processing power of the DEC 3000 AXP Model 500 workstation may lead
    to breakthroughs in scientists' understanding of complex chemical
    reactions, such as the effect of drugs on nerve receptor sites.  That's
    the opinion of Dr. Andrew Holder, president of Semichem, a Missouri,
    U.S.A-based software firm that tested a prototype of the workstation.
    Semichem's AMPAC models chemical reactions using quantum mechanical
    calculations.  Some of the calculations can take days to process, even
    on a VAX 6000 Model 500 system.  On the DEC 3000 AXP workstation,
    Semichem can model the same reaction in one-fourth the time.  By
    speeding up these computations, the workstation enables scientists to
    model larger molecules and gain more meaningful information on their
    behavior.  Semichem described the porting of AMPAC from VAX VMS to
    OpenVMS AXP as almost transparent.

    Contact: Dr. Andrew Holder, Semichem's President, aholder@vax1.umkc.edu

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    Copyright 1992 by Digital Equipment Corporation. All rights reserved.
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    ----------------------------------------------------------------------

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    Alpha AXP, AXP, DEC, DECstation, DECsystem, OpenVMS, ULTRIX, VAX, VAX
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