Conference 7.286::digital

5261.0. "StrongArm CPU appears to have lost to Intel" by NQOS01::tunsrv2-tunnel.imc.das.dec.com::Tucker () Fri Apr 25 1997 11:21

From InfoWorld April '97:

Ellison's Intel epiphany for the Network Computer

The Oracle chairman's new NC vision pits one half of the Wintel duopoly 
against the other

By Rob Guth

After months of people finding fault with his plan, it was a trip to Taiwan 
in the middle of last year that convinced Larry Ellison that his network 
computer strategy was flawed. 

At the Taipei headquarters of Acer Group, the chairman and CEO of 
Oracle saw the inner workings of a $6 billion company built on the 
strength of low-cost PC manufacturing. Acer officials drove home the 
point that they and many others had expressed before: You can build it, 
but the industry won't come if it doesn't have Intel inside. 

"It just hit me," Ellison said in an interview at last week's Open World 
conference in Tokyo. "It took me a while to see that we needed to go 
with the flow of the existing industry." 

And that they did. 

With the announcement at Open World of the world's first network 
computers (NCs) based on Ellison's NC vision, Oracle disclosed that it 
has garnered broad support from Intel. The strategy not only enlists one 
half of the "Wintel" duopoly to fight the other, namely Microsoft, it also 
marks a major shift from Oracle's original NC plan and could prove to be 
a turning point in transforming the NC into reality. 

Firstly, most of the forthcoming NC clients and all of the NC servers are 
based on Intel's Pentium processor. On top of that, in Tokyo Ellison 
demonstrated an NC running Windows applications residing on a 
Pentium-based server, as well as an NC running streamed video from an 
Intel MMX-based server -- the same functionality expected from 
Microsoft's recently announced Windows Terminal. (See "Terminally 
thin.") 

To be sure, Intel-based NCs had been talked about for at least a year, but 
Oracle's design was centered on another chip, the StrongARM RISC 
processor, designed by Digital Equipment and Acorn Computer Group of 
the United Kingdom. Though the ARM architecture is still part of the NC 
movement and vendors soon will roll out NCs based on the chip, 
Wednesday's announcement positions Intel as one cornerstone of the 
NC movement. 

Though Ellison gave credit to Intel CEO and President Andy Grove for 
first suggesting an Intel-based NC -- "Andy got it before I did," he said -- 
Intel as a whole was skeptical of Oracle's plans, according to officials. 

And with good reason. Since Ellison's first public disclosure of his NC 
vision at a 1995 conference in Paris, the entire plan was seen as a move 
to kill off PCs, Intel's bread and butter. For a year and a half at industry 
shows and in the press, Ellison waxed on about the unnecessary cost and 
complexity of what he and other industry players like to call the 
"mainframe on a desktop." 

But late last year as the NC plan was raising eyebrows but little 
commitment from vendors and users, Oracle and Network Computer 
Inc. (NCI), Oracle's wholly owned subsidiary charged with evangelizing 
the NC, realized that a new strategy was in order, officials said. 

"If you look at our story six months ago, it wasn't very appealing to the 
PC manufacturers because our reference designs and our software were 
built totally around the ARM architecture," Jerry Baker, president of 
NCI, said in an interview. "To walk into a PC manufacturer who was 
very Intel-oriented ... and ask them to look in a totally different direction 
just proved to be totally impossible." 

And as for corporate users, "Nobody had ever heard of the ARM chip, 
and jumping not only to a totally new paradigm of computing but using 
all totally new technology underneath was a little frightening to some," 
Baker said. 

With Intel's support, which crystallized only in the past two months, 
Oracle hopes its new message will grab the interest of users and top-tier 
PC makers. And according to some observers, the NC has a better 
chance of being more than just a Microsoft gadfly with loose support 
among unknown hardware vendors -- it has a chance of becoming a part 
of the mainstream of corporate and consumer electronics. 

The strategy for doing that, outlined in Ellison's speech at Open World, 
revolves around the integration of not just the client side of the NC 
system but around complete packages, or a "network in a box," including 
Intel-based NC servers that can easily be set up. 

By supporting a range of NC offerings, vendors will not be strapped 
solely to the narrow profit margins of an NC client priced in the range of 
$295 to $795. They can also gain profit from the server side of the 
equation. (See "Oracle's Ellison launches $5,000 NC-based network.") 

"I think there is the opportunity there for a Compaq or a Dell or an AST 
or Akia to provide a complete package with not only high-volume, 
lower-margin clients but also higher-margin servers as well," Baker said. 
"It's technology that they live and breathe every single day, so basically 
going from what they're doing today to building Intel-based NCs is a 
very, very small step." 

For users, meanwhile, Oracle boasts of an annual cost of $400 per 
machine and smooth integration with existing networks running 
Windows on Intel processors. 

Though currently most of the NC vendors have no presence in the 
computer world, at least one PC vendor has taken the bait. NEC 
announced at Open World that it will target an NC server at small and 
medium-size businesses. 

Baker declined to name any other PC vendors that might jump on the 
NC bandwagon, saying only that NCI is talking to most top-tier vendors 
and that "the prospects are good" for enlisting their support. 

Ironically for Ellison, the very company that helped him clarify his 
strategy is leading a charge toward the high end of the NC's price range 
with its own PCs. 

Acer this month will begin shipping its sub-$1,000 Acer Basic II, the 
follow-up to last year's $500 Acer Basic, a low-cost PC targeted at 
developing markets. The second-generation Acer Basic is a full-feature 
multimedia PC with a built-in modem for Internet access, powered by 
120-MHz and 133-MHz Pentium processors. 

Always the optimist, Ellison sees no threat. 

"Since the NC uses Intel chips," he said in his speech, "every PC maker is 
manufacturing NC servers and ... NC desktops." 

Rob Guth is a Tokyo correspondent for the IDG News Service, an 
InfoWorld affiliate. Terho Uimonen, the news service's correspondent in 
Taipei, Taiwan, contributed to this story. 

    
    I never expected the StrongArm chip to end up in Network PCs.
    I had thought the low power consumption of the cpu made it a natural
    for the Newtons/PDAs of the present/future.  Not the NC market.
    
    Not a big deal if you ask me.
    
    /art

    And while we are making forward strides......AMD has announced that
    Digital Equipment will use the K6 instead of the Intel Pentium. Dan
    Kafferle is quoted in the Reuters article I say on line....

    >AMD has announced that Digital Equipment will use K6 instead of
    >the Intel Pentium
    
    No, that's ABSOLUTELY NOT what was announced!!  Try again.
    Kratz

    
    >>
    No, that's ABSOLUTELY NOT what was announced!!  Try again.
    >>
    
    Well ... it might not be what we agreed to, but the press reported 
    that DIGITAL is indeed going to use the K6 with the Venturis line.. 
    
    Reference:
    http://techweb.cmp.com/iw/newsflash/nf627/0424_st10.htm
    
    Regards,
    
    / Kerry

There was a news item in CNN the other day about how AMD is challenging Intel, 
and in that, in the list of endorsements it was mentioned that Digital has 
decided to use AMD microprocessors.

-Jay

But it didn't say we'd use AMD exclusively, did it?

			Steve

    > But it didn't say we'd use AMD exclusively, did it?
    
    I wonder if the Venturis line will exclusively uses AMD while the
    Celebris lines uses Intel.
    
    -Bruce
    

    re .1:  As .0 says, Oracle was pushing an NC design based on
    StrongArm.  It would have meant huge sales for Digital, if 
    StrongArm-based NC's had taken off.  However, Oracle's switch to 
    Intel may not mean that StrongArm is strong-armed out of the market.  
    A StrongArm-based NC is likely to be significantly less expensive 
    than something base on a Pentium, and this is a very cost-focussed 
    market.  So it could be that this announcement means that we are 
    going to end up with a fraction of a large market instead of lots 
    of a very small market.  If anyone has real information, I'd love
    to hear from you.
    
    	Enjoy,
    	Larry

    I read the change in Oracle's plan came about while Larry Ellison was
    trying to find manufactures in Asia. Many of the companies he was
    talking with said they would be interested only if it had intel
    inside.  

    My thoughts are these manufactures are going to want to push a lowend
    PC configuration as a Network Computer(the sames one they are going to
    want push as NETpc's.  If they do the idea of a low prices client has 
    become the NETpc that will not do windows and will cost more than the 
    original $500 Network Computer.

    -Bruce  
     

     

Hmmm....  I wonder if Larry Ellison's epiphany occured while watching
a demo of ActiveX, which wouldn't be able to run on a StrongARM NC.


						-Paul

    Paul,
    
    My understanding is that Windows CE is to be ported to the StrongArm,
    and if so, this would mean ActiveX would be part of this ..
    
    Regards,
    
    / Kerry

    
>    My understanding is that Windows CE is to be ported to the StrongArm,
>    and if so, this would mean ActiveX would be part of this ..

 I think that Windows CE doesn't have ActiveX today.
So port of Windows CE to StrongArm does not bring ActiveX.

Of course, I don't know the status of Tomorrow.

Regards,

Shigeru Murakami/ NSIS DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORPORATION JAPAN.