COMPAQ RENAMES DIGITAL UNIX TRU64, DEBUTS NEW ALPHA.

By Nick Patience Tru64 will be, as expected, the new name for Compaq Computer Corp's Digital Unix operating system. However there's still no word on additional OEM partners for the operating system, which is looking increasingly isolated in the converging Unix world. On Monday the company will also announce version 4.0f of the OS running on the Alpha processors - the version for Intel Corp's IA-64 Merced chip will ship at the same time as the processor, says Compaq. The latest understanding we have about Intel's secretive plan is systems being ready to ship some time in the second half of 2000. There's no word yet from Compaq on the level of integration we can expect between the Bravo Unix-on-Intel it is developing and the Monterey effort being developed by IBM, Santa Cruz Operation and one-time Compaq Unix partner, Sequent, based on the AIX kernel. Tru64 4.0f is an upgrade from versions 4.0d and 4.0e and adds support for the latest Alpha chip out of Compaq, the 21264, plus support for TruCluster version 1.6, LDAP and WBEM support. The Tru64 name comes from the TruCluster brand name used for clusters of the old DEC servers. Version 5.0 will feature increased physical memory and user support, taking it to 28 GB of physical storage and tens of thousands of users. It will also feature dynamic resource partitioning that enables partitioning of the operating system to manage multiple workloads. Integration of the Memory Channel- based TruCluster technology with the ServerNet-based NonStop interconnect from Compaq's Tandem is likely to be included in version 5.0 also, as is increased Unix-NT integration, including single task and password management. Version 5.0 will appear some time next year. The version after that will likely include sub- second failover and is currently slated to be 6.0. On the AlphaServer front, Compaq is also announcing today the DS20, a dual processor Alpha machine, based on the 21264 64-bit chip and meant as an alternative to the company's 1200 server, which it says it will continue to sell and support, but this is supposed to offer double the performance of that machine. The DS20 runs two 500MHz 21264 and will be offered with Tru64 Unix or Open VMS, or in an OS-free version aimed at those that want to run Linux. There are no plans to sell it running Windows NT. The 0.35 micron 21264 is still designed in-house at the Alpha design group, but manufactured by Intel and Samsung. It offers memory bandwidth of 5.2Gb/sec with two 256k buses, which Compaq claims is more than twice that of the Sun Enterprise 250 and offers 11,616 tpmC marks at $50.58 per tpmC. In addition, Compaq is also announcing upgrades to the Internet AlphaServer software (IASS), to 4.2, which adds LDAP integration from Netscape and anti-spam filtering, plus the enterprise toolkit for Visual Studio has been promoted to version 1.2 to support Tru64. Compaq believes it is the first company to offer a beta of a Java Developer's Kit 1.2, what Sun now refers to as Java 2, on its AlphaServers. Finally, Compaq is cutting most AlphaServer system prices by up to 33% and has reduced memory prices for the 800 and 1200 by up to one quarter. Upgrades for the 4100 to include the 21264 chip are now available. Version 4.0f of Tru64 will be available in March at the same price as the previous version, starting at $1,200 for AlphaServers 800, 1200 and the new DS20 and unlimited user pricing starting at $1,300. The DS20 AlphaServer with 128Mb or RAM and 4GB hard drive starts at $19,000 with Tru64, or Open VMS and the so-called Linux-ready configuration costs $15,000. + MICROSOFT TESTS COULD UNDERMINE ITS INTEGRATION CLAIMS Microsoft Corp must hand over documents that could undermine its case for integrating the browser and the operating system, US District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ruled in the Washington courtroom yesterday. Microsoft has always maintained that the Internet Explorer web browser and Windows98 are so tightly integrated that they cannot be separated. But test results carried out internally at the firm in October 1998 may show otherwise, government antitrust lawyers argued. In response to a program written by government witness Dr Edward Felton which claimed to separate out the two functions, Microsoft software engineer David D'Souza carried out analysis of Felton's tests. As part of that work, he analyzed the functionality of the SHDOCVW.DLL dynamic link library, which is used when a new window is opened. His work was revealed in an e-mail which, according to Microsoft attorney Steven Holley was "inadvertently produced" to the court. Microsoft has asked for the e-mail to be returned. Within the message, D'Souza wrote: "Arguably...this list could be used to 'separate' shdocvw into two parts: shared+shell and browser specific." Government lawyers pounced on the phrase to mean that, if such an analysis was possible, then Microsoft could be asked to separate the two products. Elsewhere, the email revealed that the test had shown up 700 browsing specific and 152 operating specific functions, but also 1,000 common functions. While justice department lawyer David Boies argued that the tests would show that "a substantial portion of the code that performs browsing function alone has been welded onto the operating system," Microsoft claimed that the tests results would actually help its case. Nevertheless, it still appeared very unwilling to produce the detailed results. "I'm not trying to hide the ball here," Holley told the judge, who replied "then I think [the results] should be produced." If browser code does not also perform operating system functions, the government side hopes to argue, then Microsoft must have carried out the integration work for reasons that aren't technical.