Digital Equipment Corp is finally ready to make its win-or-bust Alpha bid to wrest a share of the desktop personal computer away from Intel Corp. The company yesterday unveiled its Alpha 21164PC processor, the low-cost, highly-integrated 64-bit part developed with Mitsubishi Electric Corp (CI No 3,083) and says it will enable designers to bring in Alpha-based personal computers at under $2,600. Although an even faster version has been talked about, the first three iterations come in at 533MHz, 466MHz and 400MHz, and cost $495, $395 and $295 respectively when you order 1,000 or more. The chip will be available from Samsung Electronics Co Ltd as well as DEC and Mitsubishi. DEC reckons the part will exceed the performance of the Pentium Pro when running Windows NT. The part is sampling now with volume in July. DEC is not saying when it will start appearing in the company’s own desktops.
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