Informed sources told The Register yesterday evening that Intel has serious concerns about potential challenges from Compaq's Alpha platform. The source used to work for Digital but was one of the bodies exchanged as part of the deal brokered by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC). She said: "Alpha will give Intel's high-end systems a run for its money because Compaq is committed to using the chip in its highest end servers." A Microsoft executive, who was booed at the Intel Developer Forum earlier this week, had said unequivocally that Win2000 will be ported to the platform. And, as we reported late last year, Compaq has succeeded in booting Win64 on the Alpha processor. Earlier this week, Paul Otellini, a senior VP in charge of Intel architecture, told The Register that he thought Compaq did not have the financial resources to sustain Alpha. The informed Intel source said that was not necessarily true. ®