DEC first showed off its FX!32 translation technology last November (CI No 2,791), but only now is it becoming generally available. FX!32 should allow Alpha systems to run 32-bit x86 Windows and Windows NT applications as fast or faster than they run on comparable x86 systems. It’s translation, insists DEC, not emulation, and evolved from three previous generations of binary translation products at DEC: VAX to Alpha, MIPS to Alpha and Sparc to Alpha. DEC claims it runs five to 20 times faster than emulation technology. Microsoft Corp apparently helped by sharing code and information, and by compatibility testing. Running under NT 4.0, FX!32 will be available free to Alpha users over the Internet, via DEC’s Internet Roadmap CD-ROM or factory-installed with new Alpha-NT systems. However fast it is, FX!32 is intended by DEC to be just a stopgap solution, as it points out hopefully that native Alpha NT office applications are just around the corner. á
