Compaq announces release date for Wildfire

Compaq has committed to a release date for its belated high-end Unix server, dubbed Wildfire.

The PC giant reckons 50 UK customers have been waiting for the high-end Alpha-based server. They have been offered temporary machines since November - the last published launch date - and are now being told the product will be available from 16 May.

The box will offer a choice of Tru64 Unix, OpenVMS or NT. Originally it was pitched as the system to help OpenVMS customers migrate to NT, but that was before Compaq last autumn took the surprising decision to cancel further development of NT on Alpha.

Ever since the NT announcement, rumours have been circulating the industry that Compaq is planning to kill off Alpha completely. This has not only put out confused messages about the future of the Alpha platform, but called into question the NonStop Himalaya platform - inherited from Tandem - which Compaq plans to migrate to Alpha in 2001/2002.

"I'm fed up of hearing that," Richard George, Alpha Server business manger told Silicon.com. "Compaq invested a further $100m in Alpha, on top of the $500m that had already been committed - that doesn't sound like a product on its way out, does it?"

The initial Wildfire system will support 16 EV67 Alpha processors, evolving into a 32- and a 64-way system over the summer and autumn.

Compaq will not initially offer Linux on Wildfire. "We have seen no customer demand for it," said George.