Hewlett-Packard Co. on Monday will begin shipping a 64-processor system based on its Alpha chip technology and also will unveil an entry-level system as part of its AlphaServer line.
Officials with the Palo Alto, Calif., company said the new systems not only illustrate HP’s commitment to the AlphaServer family—which it inherited when it bought Compaq Computer Corp. in May 2002 for about $19 billion—but also to its continued road map for helping AlphaServer users in their eventual migration to HP’s line of Itanium-based Integrity systems.
HP is rolling out the 64-way AlphaServer GS1280, a system that is based on the company’s Alpha EV7 chip and that follows the launching in July of the 32-processor version of the server. According to HP officials, the 64-way system completes the line of AlphaServers based on the EV7, the first of which were released in January. The servers can run both the HP OpenVMS and Tru64 Unix operating systems.
The single-processor AlphaServer DS15 server will replace the current DS10 system.
Both systems are part of HP’s AlphaServer RetainTrust program, designed to keep AlphaServer customers as the company standardizes its high-end 64-bit systems on Intel Corp.’s Itanium technology. HP has rolled out a road map in which the company will introduce the last new Alpha chip in 2004 and will stop selling AlphaServers in 2006. The company will end support of the systems in 2011.