32-way WildFire Alpha servers poised for rollout

Compaq is to take the wraps off its next generation "WildFire" high end Alpha servers in the next two weeks, with one of the first major outings being - significantly - Telecoms 99 in Geneva. The servers have been a long time in the making, but Compaq intends them to blitz the top end of the Unix server market, and the phone business is a good place to be looking for this class of customer. The AlphaServer GS320 WildFire will support up to 32 733MHz EV67 processors, and in the opinion of Terry Shannon of Shannon Knows Compaq, should be able to deliver more than 140 tpmC. WildFire is currently around a year late, due to problems with custom ASICs, and plans for 72- to 120-way systems seem to be on hold. But the 32-way versions are now out with beta sites, and all seems to be well. ®