As revealed here on August 20 ( SCO ducks as Compaq lets fly), Compaq has struck a deal with Microsoft to make NT and Digital Unix work together. A source close to Compaq's plans now suggests that the punt we took that Alpha would displace Merced in its affections was probably true. The companies today said that as most corporate customers work in a heteregeneous environment, D/UX and NT will need to interoperate with (Tandem’s) NonStop Kernel and (Digital’s) Open VMS. Compaq will also push its Alpha technology as a 64-bit processor which can run both NT and D/UX, as also revealed here earlier this year. However, as we're still waiting for Windows NT 5.0, goodness knows how long that will be. A Compaq source said: "For us, in a nutshell, this is how we take all the capabilities within Tandem and Digital and transfer those proprietary platforms to NT." NT was criticised for not being scaleable or robust enough to be a corporate platform but this deal helped to address those issues, the source added. In an earlier story Richard George, in charge of Compaq’s Alpha processor in the UK, said: "We’ll achieve 22 per cent of Unix market share by the year 2002." He said then that Compaq was in the process of persuading other vendors to adopt D/UX and turn it into “the standard Unix”. The deal will further marginalise HP, and, indirectly Intel with its Merced processor. At the time, Intel told The Register that Compaq was one of its closest partners. ® Other related stories: Compaq kicks Merced butt while it's down Mips chip flip flops as Tandem team chooses Alpha Intel fights back after Compaq attack