Another licensee for the Digital Equipment Corp Alpha RISC microprocessor has been unearthed by Electronic News in the shape of Irish firm Mentec Computer Systems Ltd, which caused a stir earlier this year with its board-level system for turning a personal computer into a video telephone (CI No 1,907). The Dublin company specialises in board-level products, and is a long-standing customer of DEC with its PDP-11 and VAX-based boards, and it wants to follow on with ones using the Alpha. It says that the Alpha boards may also replace its Intel Corp 80860 RISC boards now that Intel is de-emphasising the part, although it reckons that the 80860 boards still have another two good years of sales in them. The Alpha boards should be ready late next year and will be offered as single board computers and and terminal servers, Mentec said. Electronic News also hears that DEC has decided on the name Alpha AXP for the VAX successors to be built around the new chip. DEC declares gnomically of AXP, which combines letters from Alpha, VAX and PDP, that it has meaning, but it’s not an acronym.
