DEC stepping lightly in Alpha source search

Electronic News, April 20, 1992 by Peter Dunn, Richard McCausland

MAYNARD, MASS. -- Digital Equipment Corp.'s pursuit of a second source for the Alpha RISC microprocessor is likely to test its diplomatic skills as the company simultaneously attempts to assure the installed base of R3000/4000 systems users of its continuing commitment to the rival MIPS architecture.

Since details of the Alpha project first began circulating a year ago, the list of potential second-source candidates has continued to shrink as semiconductor vendors allied themselves behind alternative RISC processors or chose to field their own offerings. Of course, a vendor could support both Alpha and a rival processor, but Cypress Semiconductor's disclosure last week that first-quarter results were impacted by a shortfall in Sparc shipments is apt to give any company pause about the top- and bottom-line prospects of RISC second-sourcing (see story, page 5).

Exacerbating matters for DEC is that several candidates with the necessary prowess in manufacturing and marketing processors -- companies like LSI Logic, NEC, Siemens and Toshiba -- are already ensconced within the MIPS camp, and the enlistment of any one of them as an Alpha licensee could trigger concern among users of R3000/4000-based DEC systems that the computer maker is launching a disabling assault against MIPS.

DEC has repeatedly gone out of its way to ensure users of its MIPS-based systems of its continued support for that architecture. Late last year, the company rolled out a series of four R3000-based workstations, all of which were said to support future board upgrades to the R4000 (EN, Dec. 2, 1991). Moreover, with volume shipments of Alpha systems still a year away, DEC has attempted to prevent a short-term drop in revenues by promoting its planned 64-bit RISC machines as well suited for technical and specialized commercial accounts, and less suited for the office environment where its MIPS computers do well.

There has been speculation among the financial community in recent weeks that, if the current MIPS licensees are out of contention, DEC would turn to National Semiconductor as a second-source for Alpha. National has thus far refrained from entering any entangling RISC alliances, but is believed to desire a suitable microprocessor to add to its product mix.

Asked if there have been any discussions between National and DEC with regard to second-sourcing the Alpha processor, a National spokesman last week said "We would not comment on any kind of contractual negotiations," adding that he was not implying there were or were not any such talks.

A spokeswoman for DEC, in noting last week that the company has the ability to start producing the Alpha processor at its facility in South Queensferry, Scotland, added "We have been in contact with a number of other possibilities outside DEC, and negotiations with them are under way, but we don't have anything more to say at this point. I couldn't say who's high on the list."

DEC officials have previously said that "serious discussions" about second sourcing are under way with device makers in the U.S., Japan and elsewhere. Duane Dickhut, manager of DEC's Semiconductor Business group, maintained in a recent interview that striking such a deal is "critical" to the Alpha strategy. "In order to develop Alpha as a standard, that's the model we need to follow," he explained.

While DEC has sufficient capacity to meet most or all anticipated market demand for high-end Alpha processors, production of lower-cost, higher-volume iterations will require added capacity from other semiconductor houses. "It's safe to say that we'd like to make a deal this calendar year or sooner," said Mr. Dickhut.

He further indicated that potential second sources would have an advantage if their semiconductor production equipment is similar to DEC's. Digital hopes to minimize glitches by placing a high value on equipment commonality, according to Mr. Dickhut. Digital will also work with second-source producers to ensure that fab equipment is characterized and operated in an identical way.

If a would-be Alpha partner has a similar equipment list, "That's a significant advantage," said Mr. Dickhut. "Or, if they see the advantage of Alpha but don't have similar equipment, they may be motivated to buy similar equipment. In any case, we're willing to license our technology and help bring up the process." DEC is also willing to consider licensing its entire process, he added.

The CMOS-4 process used to produce Alpha at DEC's Hudson, Mass., facility utilizes mainstream equipment: Nikon wafer steppers, Applied Materials deposition and etch units, BTU International furnaces and Advantest equipment. To facilitate the partnering process, said Mr. Dickhut, "We will make sure when procuring equipment that we do it in a way to be compatible with our partners. We are relatively cautious about pioneering new equipment, but we will be aggressive with new technology that other producers would have. We avoid unique or customized tools."

However, Digital has "done a lot of work on getting in, understanding and characterizing the equipment we buy from vendors," said Mr. Dickhut. "We will share that with second-source producers. When we've examined second sourcing in the past, we found that just because someone has the same equipment list, it's not necessarily characterized the same or operated the same way as we do. We would help with things like mask biasing for a particular stepper, for instance."