DEC, Microsoft ink PC software deal

Electronic News, April 27, 1992 by Craig Stedman

MAYNARD, MASS. -- Digital Equipment Corp. and Microsoft Corp. last week completed a long-expected agreement to have the upcoming NT version of the Windows operating system run on DEC's new Alpha RISC architecture, setting that platform up as a second potential alternatives to Intel's x86 microprocessor line at the PC level.

The move would enable DEC to directly compete for PC-class business and design wins with both Intel and MIPS Computer System. Microsoft already had committed to put Windows NT on the R4000 in addition to the Intel architecture.

DEC and MIPS concede that the x86 is likely to remain the dominant hardware technology for PCs well into the future, raising questions as to whether there will be enough break-away business at that level to satisfy the business plans of both companies.

David Stone, vice president of the software engineering group at DEC, reiterated that DEC plans to continue marketing MIPS-based machines itself "as a cost-competitive platform" positioned below an Alpha systems line scheduled to be introduced late this year.

Mr. Stone noted, however, that DEC does hope to convince members of the MIPS-oriented Advanced Computing Environment group to switch to Alpha in the future. "It's a natural evolution that i think ACE people will move to," he said. "We'll just have to see how it plays out as to who has the best chip-set for that."

Carl Stork, director of NT business development at Microsoft, said the Alpha version of the operating system should be available "basically at the same time" as the x86 and MIPS releases, which are being targeted to ship late this year.

Microsoft is doing the x86 and MIPS work on NT, while the Alpha work is being handled mainly by DEC. Mr. Stork said this division of labor is aimed at taking advantage of DEC's own operating system experience and not a sign that Microsoft views the Alpha as less strategic.

He expects "an increasing overlap" in performance between Alpha and the MIPS architecture, but noted that they should "co-exist together" nonetheless. "We still think MIPS has a role to play, in that it does have a combination of price and performance that complements what you can get with Intel," he said.

While NT probably will be offered in the future to other hardware vendors who want to do the work themselves, Microsoft has no plans to becom particularly involved in any further porting efforts. "These are really the three architectures where was see a broad role for NT," Mr. Stork said.

Mr. Stork acknowledged the role of David Cutler, the Microsoft executive who is leading the development of NT and who previously worked for DEC on its VMS operating system and a pre-Alpha RISC project which was canceled.

Reports of a possible deal between the two companies related to NT first began to circulate last summer (EN, Aug. 26, 1991). DEC executives later confirmed that they were interested in porting the software to Alpha and expected to be able to do so (EN, Nov. 1, 1991).

Most NT-based business is expected to come at the LAN server level, rather than the desktop, "over the next two to three years, anyway," Mr. Stone said.

Microsoft would handle all licensing of NT to other system vendors wanting to use it on Alpha-based machines. Microsoft also will make its own Windows applications available on Alpha.