A year ago Posted 17 June 1998 Compaq's decision to push Digital's Alpha chip line (see previous week's issue) has given heart to Samsung, which via licences from Digital is an Alpha developer and second source. The Korean company now says it's setting up a Boston-based subsidiary to market and distribute Alpha, chipsets and motherboards, and to boost sales further the company has struck a world-wide bundling deal with Corel. Alpha (the processor, rather than the developmental level, we trust) versions of CorelDraw 8 and WordPerfect 8 will be bundled with Samsung products, and according to Corel Samsung also intends to bundle its software with PCs, monitors and printers. Samsung's extension of its Alpha licence to include development in February represented a victory for the company in its long-running quest for a viable CPU, and Compaq's new-found enthusiasm for the chip helps too. Samsung has tried developing its own, and building unsuccessful workstations based on Intel and HP technology, but this time it may have got it right. It's certainly in Compaq's interest, as Intel has taken over Digital's Alpha manufacturing, to keep the Korean company in play. ®