Article 2928 of dec.notes.technology.dechips: Title: Internet Gossip About Alpha Yields (and Digital UNIX) Reply Title: NT-only AlphaServers are back.. This has been discussed in the past elsewhere in this conference, (notes 288.*, for instance), and it's only slightly germane to this topic, but NT-only AlphaServers are back. We were recently required to supply firmware bits that disable UNIX/VMS (SRM console) booting on AlphaServer 4100/4000 (Rawhide) and a future variant of the Rawhide platform being qualified now. This feature was requested so DEC can price "universal" platform CPUs at ~$10,000 a pop versus NT-only at something like $2,500 a pop. Same CPU. Same processor chip. Same SRM console. Different (socketed) SROM part. Very different module/system pricing. Comparable plans are underway for AlphaServer 800 (Corelle). The Rawhide and Corelle NT-only variants provide a "hidden" mechanism to allow UNIX/VMS booting in Manufacturing and at the distributor. Reason: UNIX/VMS are required for the test and FIS processes. Apparently, even the AlphaServer Windows NT FIS process still requires the ability to boot UNIX? Why we choose to price the HW differently instead of the operating system is beyond me. In so doing, we'll piss off our loyal VMS/UNIX customers. We as a Company seem to do everything possible to erase their loyalty. IMHO, these same VMS/UNIX customers would be willing to pay more $ for a higher performance, more robust operating system environment (VMS/UNIX). Will they put up with artificial HW pricing practices? I guess only time will tell. Why not simply charge more for the operating system and keep the HW prices the same? I'm hoping the powers to be will come to their senses and reverse course on their HW pricing decision. This is the third or fourth time we've been required to add NT-only firmware support on Rawhide, only to have the decision to go ahead with the implementation rescinded in the final hour. In summary, there are real cost factors which influence processor pricing, such as wafer cost, processor engineering/design/qual costs, value-added costs, etc., and then there are artificial ones. These artificial pricing influences can potentially have an even greater (and difficult to measure) impact in the area of customer perceptions and buying patterns than these real/measurable cost factors. And finally, if anyone thinks that customers won't find out that the less costly NT-only CPUs are the *exact same hardware* as their "universal" brethren, he/she is kidding him/herself. It's conceivable most customers could have been fooled in the pre-Internet days. However, today, once one customer discovers something about a product and that info is posted on the net, most other (savvy) customers are privy to that same exact information.