A slide presentation Compaq has shown its business partners and now in the hands of The Register, has demonstrated its serious intent to use the Alpha microprocessor at the high end. The presentation, delivered by Compaq 64-bit Win NT program and product manager Mont Francisco, is titled Win64 and Alpha, the future is now. According to Francisco, Alpha has demonstrated its performance leadership in the 64-bit market since September 1995. The presentation says that TPC-C results show that an eight-way Alpha system holds the industry record for absolute performance. Further, the document gives details of the Win64 OS. Applications must comply with Win64's API, and two platforms are supported, the IA-64 and the Alpha chip. Compaq told its ISVs: "You can either do nothing and wait for IA-64 in the shape of Merced, mid-2000 or McKinley, in late 2001 or prepare for the future and convert your applications to 64-bit today." Compaq, said Francisco, has platform SDKs, and a developer advice package, with a Win64 porting centre at Bellevue and a Solutions Alliance. "Alpha is ready now," Francisco told the ISVs. The logic for moving apps to 64-bit now is that end users will be able to build bigger databases and perform faster transactions. Compaq is pursuing a dual strategy with Merced and the Alpha. ® Related Stories Intel anxious about Alpha threat An insider tells us stuff Merced only slightly undead We talk to Stephen Smith, Intel Merced manager, and hold the package in our hands. Hopefully, we'll have the pictures up on our site today. For more detailed information on Compaq and Alpha, see Shannon knows Compaq