AMD has licensed Poseidon to produce SMP chipsets for the Athlon K7. And, at the same time, Poseidon has changed its name to HotRail and secured funding from a spate of VCs. HotRail has described a simultaneous switched matrix (SSM) system that will support multiple K7s with up to eight processors. AMD has always said it will sell K7s, sorry Athlons, into the server market but this is the first clear evidence of how that will work. Our sources indicate that systems are not likely to appear, however, until next year. In the meantime, both Compaq and API, the Samsung sub, will seriously market SMP systems using Slot B and the Alpha processor. Our reports indicate that Alpha will be the first processor to run at 1GHz without aid of cooling technology. ®