Compaq is preparing for a product blitz at the beginning of February and will roll out a new name for Digital Unix on the first of the month. But, at the same time, Compaq UK said it was unlikely to roll out its 21264 Alpha workstations, dubbed the X-Treme Performance XP 1000 series, until much later this quarter.

Compaq's big bash at the end of this month and the beginning of the next will include announcements about StorageWorks Raid Array RA8000 and the ESA 12000, with Monet and DS20 in the same timeframe, according to Terry Shannon, editor of Shannon knows Compaq.

Meanwhile, a corporate spokesperson at Compaq US declined to comment on the numerous stories we wrote about redundancies over the Christmas period. She said: "We don't comment on speculations and rumours." The last time Compaq US said something like this was when we exclusively broke the news about the company being in talks with Gateway 2000 at Houston two years ago. ®