From: SALES::SALES::MRGATE::"A1::CHOICE.READERS" 30-APR-1997 07:30:26.05 To: @Distribution_List CC: Subj: #30640-UNIX Newsletter, Apr-May '97 1 From: NAME: Readers Choice To: See Below (Distribution List Truncated) From: Diane Voelker, ZKO, DTN 381-2405 Distribution: This message was delivered to you as a Reader's Choice subscriber to UNIX Newsletter. Subscriptions for this newsletter are collected through the following tools: - Web based Reader's Choice profile, URL: http://webrc.das.dec.com - Reader's Choice profile (VTX keyword PROFILE). At the main menu, select #1, Select Topics of Interest; then #4, Newsletters. - While viewing the document in the Information Repository (VTX keyword IR). If you have questions, please send mail to SALES::FEEDBACK, or feedback@sales.enet.dec.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ************************************************************ U N I X N E W S L E T T E R ************************************************************* Apr-May '97 Vol. 21 ******* Welcome to the UNIX Product Newsletter. Questions or comments about this newsletter may be sent to: Diane Voelker voelker@zk3.dec.com UNIX Marketing ************************************************************************ GOOD NEWS! DIGITAL UNIX Banner Ads appearing on popular, external web sites! See "Events/Programs" section for more information. Also.... The UNIX Newsletter is now available to our partners via the password protected SBU Web Site at: http://www.partner.digital.com/sbu/americas/articles/ ************************************************************************ CONTENTS ******** 1. NEW COLLATERAL...............................................1 - Guide to UNIX and Windows NT Integration - Selling UNIX Clusters: A Proposal Generation Aide - "UNICODE: A Big Solution to a Big Problem" White Paper - Article Reprint from "Client Server Computing" Available - New Enterprise Solutions Sales Tools 2. COMPETITIVE UPDATE...........................................3 - HP's New UNIX Trouble 3. PRODUCT UPDATE ..............................................4 - DIGITAL UNIX Version 4.0C - DIGITAL UNIX Supports Xerox High-speed Production Printers 4. EVENTS/PROGRAMS..............................................6 - DIGITAL UNIX Banner Ads on Internet Sites - TruCluster Directmail Campaign 5. IN THE NEWS..................................................7 - IPv6 and DIGITAL UNIX Article in Computer Reseller News - Fastest System for Weather Forecasting on DIGITAL UNIX 1. NEW COLLATERAL ============== ** Guide to UNIX and Windows NT Integration ** Joe McMullen, UNIX Documentation The "Guide to UNIX and Windows NT Integration, Software Development, and Migration" is now available; order number: EC-G7520-43. This replaces: DIGITAL UNIX and Windows NT Interoperability (order number EC-N5855-43). This guide is available as a free printed book, that can be ordered through the Literature Ordering System (LOS). It is also available on the Internet in HTML version: http://www.digital.com/info/alphaserver/solutions/interop/integration.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ** Selling UNIX Clusters: A Proposal Generation Aide ** Steve Gonzalez, UNIX Ambassador A Web site is now provided as a guideline for responding to "Request for Proposals" for TruClusters. The intent is to provide a comprehensive document that includes information on a complete solution for customer RFP's based on DIGITAL's AlphaServer 8400 and/or 4100 servers and the DIGITAL UNIX Operating System. Included in the modules provide in this guide is information on DIGITAL's Memory Channel technology. The URL is: http://crosm.dlc.dec.com It is also going to be made available soon to our Partners via the SBU Partner Site (Password protected). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ** "UNICODE: A Big Solution to a Big Problem" White Paper ** Wendy Rannenberg, UNIX Consulting Engineer One of the common problems in the Asian standards arena concerns how to handle ideographic characters in computing. This problem was highlighted in Rex Lint's article entitled the "The Asian Standardization Scene" (CSAC News, January 1996). The article also referenced "a demonstration of interchange of documents between Japanese, Chinese, and Korean document processing systems" as a recent example of the efforts underway to resolve this problem. This was published in DIGITAL's Industry Standards and Consortia newsletter (internal publication) and can be found on: http://www-server.mso.dec.com/ISAC/doc/news/in0197.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- April 1997 UNIX News Page 1 ** Article Reprint from "Client Server Computing" Available ** Diane Voelker, UNIX Marketing Reprints of the article in "Client/Server Computing" entitled "Why Web Servers Need 64-bits" begins by stating that only DIGITAL today offers the benefits of 64-bit hardware with a 64-bit operating system. A sidebar looks at DIGITAL customer, Bermuda Ltd., and how they use DIGITAL UNIX to capture National Weather Service satellite data for their small island, where they are threatened almost weekly during hurricane season. The article sites other examples of the benefits of DIGITAL UNIX and Alpha Web Servers including, Trade Point USA for international trading, and the highly popular AltaVista search engine. There is also a nice contrast between DIGITAL, who provides the complete 64-bit solution today, and Sun MicroSystems, who down plays its importance, but they are working towards the same goal. This reprint has been re-ordered and is again available from LOS; part #EC-Y7353-51. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ** New Enterprise Solutions Sales Tools ** Carol Reardon * The NEW Enterprise Solutions Quick Reference Guide for customers is now available. It features solutions and products for Enterprise Applications Data Warehouse, DIGITAL AlphaServer for INTRANET SEARCH, AllConnect for DIGITAL UNIX as well as AlphaServer System 4000,8200,8400 information. Order VTX LOS, Part number EC-N7280-10. * Explore the Enterprise Solutions WEB Site for more program specific Information at, http://sbu.mro.dec.com/esi/ * ENTERPRISE APPLICATIONS, NEW collateral - SSA and Digital Solutions Brief, part # EC-F6733-10 SSA and Digital Trifold, part # EC-N7235-17 - BAAN and Digital Trifold, EC-N7542-17 - Oracle and Digital,Applications Brief, part # EC-F7208-17 Oracle and Digital Trifold, part # EC-N7546-17 NEW Customer Testimonials - MITEL Semiconductor,part #EA-A7346-58 PeopleSoft, Inc., part # EA-A7345-58 April 1997 UNIX News Page 2 * DATA WAREHOUSE SOLUTIONS New Alpha Warehouse testimonial- Fannie Mae, the largest financial institution in the world, built a Data Warehouse on a DIGITAL AlphaServer 8400 running Oracle7 and SAS software solution. The parallel processing features of Alpha and Oracle resulted in significantly reduced load times from overnight to 2-3 minutes during the day on the DIGITAL AlphaServer!!! Located on the ESI Alpha Warehouse web site at, http://sbu.mro.dec.com/esi/dataware.htm Video Testimonial- Metro Cash & Carry, the largest retailer in the southern hemisphere, data Warehouse solution. Steven Brobst of Strategic Technologies & Systems presents company background,business problem and why Metro Cash & Carry chose DIGITAL. Order VTX IR: VI56AX NEW Alpha Warehouse collateral, selling material,a new partner plan and partner summary chart are located on the ESI web site in the WHAT'S NEW section. http://sbu.mro.dec.com/esi/new0127.htm * AllConnect for DIGITAL UNIX SOLUTIONS - An Updated White Paper, AllConnect for Digital UNIX: Integrating Digital UNIX and Microsoft Windows NT, part # EC-N6839-51 on VTX LOS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. COMPETITIVE UPDATE ================== ** HP's New UNIX Trouble ** Be sure to get the latest presentation regarding Hewlett Packard's woes as they face the challenge of migrating their 32-bit HP-UX OS to a 64-bit implementation and their migration to the Intel chip (Merced). For anyone competing with HP, this presentation is a must: http://sbudev1.mro.dec.com/sbu/comp/hp/annanaly/uxv4/sld001.htm ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ April 1997 UNIX News Page 3 ** New AlphaServer-Inside Website ** Andrea Harris, AlphaServer Marketing The AlphaServer-Inside website is now available internally and on the DIGITAL Business Link (DBL). This new site is dedicated to helping you win AlphaServer business. The site is off-limits to customers, which means that we can make sensitive information such as pre-announcement product details, in-depth competitive analysis, presentations, and internal technical documents available to our field and business partners. The url for DIGITAL employees is http://frodo.eng.pko.dec.com/alphaserver-inside The url for DIGITAL Business Link is: http://www.businesslink.digital.com Login and select the AlphaServer button. If your DBL profile does not allow you accesss to the site, send feedback to DBL at calldbl@mail.dec.com. The internal and DBL versions of the AlphaServer-Inside sites vary slightly. The internal site points to internal pages (such as the SBU home page) where the partner site points to the DBL versions of those pages. We also have the ability to post items internally (such as planning documents) that should not appear on DBL. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. PRODUCT UPDATE ============== ** DIGITAL UNIX Version 4.0C ** Val Cormier, UNIX Product Management The DIGITAL UNIX Version 4.0C software provides hardware support for the DIGITAL Workstation 433au and 500au. V4.0C is functionally equivalent to DIGITAL UNIX V4.0B, with only the addition of platform-specific new hardware support for the Personal Workstation 433au and 500 au. With this hardware support, DIGITAL UNIX customers will continue to have price and performance leadership for low to midrange workstations. The V4.0C kit includes V4.0B and will install as Version 4.0B on DIGITAL AlphaStation and AlphaServer systems, and as Version 4.0C on the DIGITAL Workstation 433au and 500 au. Version 4.0C can be ordered from DIGITAL and its business partners with shipments beginning on April 28, 1997. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- April 1997 UNIX News Page 4 ** DIGITAL UNIX Supports Xerox High-speed Production Printers ** Peter Powell, DIGITAL Commercial UNIX Product Marketing Manager DIGITAL and Xerox have a longstanding enterprise production printing alliance that makes available two families of high-speed printers, DocuPrint and DocuTech. Both have a maximum speed of 135 pages per minute. Both can print documents at less than 1.5 cents per page. Xerox also provides single-pass, highlight color at speeds up to 92 pages per minute, multiple input stacks, complete feeding, and finishing capabilities unmatched in the industry. * DocuPrint printers are typically used for applications that print a large volume of variable data with one or a limited number of copies, such as monthly statements for a telephone company. These printers address most of the high-speed printing requirements of DIGITAL's commercial UNIX users * DocuTech printers are typically used to print many copies of the same document, such as training manuals and books on demand DIGITAL engineers recently tested Xerox printers driven by DIGITAL UNIX AlphaStation systems. The tests verified the ability of AlphaStation systems to drive the printers using basic lpr, lpq, and lprm commands using standard and Xerox-private job control attributes. DIGITAL now recommends these Xerox printers to DIGITAL UNIX users with high-speed printing requirements that exceed the speed of the DIGITAL PrintServer line. DIGITAL UNIX now supports: * Xerox DocuPrint 4890/4850 (highlight color), 4090/4050 Network Printer Series * Xerox DocuPrint 4635 Network Printer Series * Xerox DocuTech 6135 Custom Document Publisher For more information: http://www.xerox.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- April 1997 UNIX News Page 5 4. EVENTS/PROGRAMS =============== ** DIGITAL UNIX Banner Ads on Internet Sites ** Lisa Beale, SBU Communications DIGITAL UNIX Banner ads can be seen on select, external web sites from April 28-May 18. Two UNIX ads are being rotated with a DIGITAL Partner banner ad. UNIX Ad One *********** UNstoppable UNbeatable UNrivaled......... DIGITAL UNIX UNIX Ad Two *********** The brains of the outfit: DIGITAL UNIX.... And the muscle: DIGITAL AlphaServers When a user clicks on the UNIX banner ad, they are taken to a transitional screen with more information as well as links to other pertinent DIGITAL sites including the DIGITAL UNIX web site and DIGITAL UNIX customer endorsements. The ads will appear when the keywords indicated below are specified (in other words, the ads are not on the home site, but rather appear when the user enters the keywords listed): SITE: URL: KEYWORDS: AltaVista altavista.digital.com UNIX AlphaServer server datawarehouse CMP Techweb www.techweb.com all ZDNet www.zdnet.com all MSN* www.msn.com all Individ Nwspg. tech section CNNfn* www.cnnfn.com digital jam section Infoseek www.infoseek.com alpha data networking computers Yahoo www.yahoo.com client server NOTE: To refresh/update your screen (to see the different ads,) press RELOAD key in Netscape. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ April 1997 UNIX News Page 6 ** TruCluster Directmail Campaign ** Brian Duggleby, UNIX Marketing A mailing to 70,000 US customers and prospects is being sent in early May. The 8-page mailer focuses on the advantages of DIGITAL UNIX TruCluster, including high availability, scalability, and superior performance of Alpha systems. Fulfillment for the mailing is a free CD-ROM, which provides a 3-minute animated TruCluster story as well as collateral, papers, and articles. The CD can also be ordered from LOS: part #: EC-C7811-78 by May 12. The DIGITAL Call Center will qualify all leads and distribute via the appropriate channels. The directmail piece can be viewed via the Internet in early May: http://www.americas.digital.com/success --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. IN THE NEWS =========== ** IPv6 and DIGITAL UNIX Article in Computer Reseller News ** Mark Silverberg, UNIX Marketing Computer Reseller News via Individual Inc. : Maynard, Mass.-- VARs and integrators who want a head-start with Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6), the next generation of IP, might want to take a look at Digital Equipment Corp.'s new rollout. The Maynard-based company's new AlphaServer, priced at $9,505, will be marketed through the reseller channel, beginning in April, using two strategies, said Jeffrey Lukowsky, Digital's IPv6 marketing manager. "It's a Unix 64-bit Alpha machine that contains the IPv6 Unix kernel, as well as IPv4," he said. "It also contains an IPv6 Web server and browser, as well as some development tools. The net result is an instant IPv6 network that's preloaded and pre-installed. A lot of our channel partners wanted this kind of turnkey solution," he said. "To meet the requirements of a different set of our resellers, we've also allowed them to pull [IPv6] over a network," he said. "They may want to install it on a different Alpha box they have in inventory or on a different Alpha box that's already on-site, or they might want to install it on a router or switch." April 1997 UNIX News Page 7 IPv4 and IPv6 can run side-by-side on the same network, enabling incremental rollout, if desired. Perhaps the biggest payoff of IPv6 is its 128-bit addressing scheme, compared with the 32-bit scheme of IPv4. Lukowsky said there are enough mathematical combinations to assign an IP address "for every proton on Earth." While that statement could not be independently confirmed, the general consensus is IPv6 would essentially eliminate concerns about running out of Internet addresses. Although IPv 6 is still in the early adopter stage, Lukowsky said all of the core protocols are complete and a completed standard is expected in 12 to 18 months. During that time, algorithm issues pertaining to RSVP (Resource Reservation Protocol) and other finer points are expected to be resolved. "It's early," Lukowsky said, "but resellers will have a competitive edge if they get started now." Copyright 1997 CMP Media Inc. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ** Fastest System for Weather Forecasting on DIGITAL UNIX ** NCAR, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, has over many years developed a mesoscopic weather forecasting model called MM5. NCAR has recently run this code on many different architectures from Cray J90 supercomputers, SGI Origin 2000 systems, SGO O2 systems, DIGITAL AlphaStations, and Sun Sparcstations. NCAR has posted the elapsed time on all of these systems on their MM5 web site. The fastest system for this weather forecasting code is not a supercomputer, but the DIGITAL AlphaStation 500/500! Some Results picked from MM5 Web Site (The lowest CPU time is best. The highest Megaflops is best) Machine CPU Time Megaflops (hh:mm:ss) (floating ops/CPU sec) SGI Origin 2000 195Mhz/4 Mb cache 0:12:37.09 122.59 SGI Origin 200 180Mhz/1 Mb cache 0:14:33.16 106.29 SGI R8000 0:29:04.26 51.44 DEC AlphaStation 500/500Mhz 0:11:19.01 136.68 For more information, check out the DIGITAL Workstation Internet site: http://www.workstation.digital.com/events/NCAR/ncar.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- April 1997 UNIX News Page 8 To Distribution List: DEVINEY@CAMINO.ENET.DEC.COM@INTERNET, DEWANDEL@ZK3.DEC.COM@INTERNET, DIAMONDE@MAIL.DEC.COM@INTERNET, DIANNA NG@MAN, DIAZ@MAIL.DEC.COM@INTERNET, DICKERMAN@MAIL.DEC.COM@INTERNET, DIDODO@MAIL.DEC.COM@INTERNET, DILISI@FURKA.ZUO.DEC.COM@INTERNET, DINGELHOFF@MAIL.DEC.COM@INTERNET, DIRK ANTEUNIS@VBE Distribution List Truncated