Duane Percox & Richard Gambrell write:
>
> >It is poor business for HP to cut off the MPE/iX future. Harry said HP
> >would consider the business needs of users of the HP3K in making future
> >decisions about the move to 64bits, etc. Why not believe him? If the
> >HP3K community can gather the strength to keep the business use of the
> >HP3K strong and growing, of course HP will port to 64 or 128 bits. The
> >PA-8xxx chips are 64 bit chips and they ain't bad, who needs the Merced
> >chip for business transaction processing? The Merced isn't even a proven
> >winner - it might be the biggest mistake HP and Intel ever made (why
> >does HP keep making upgraded PA-8xxx announcements if Merced is do
> >good?).
>
> This is a great paragraph! Thanks Richard. A dose of reality is just
> what we need these days.
>

Just my private $.02 on this (and I _mean_ private):

Thanks for the above thoughts. Having customers with a mindset like
this is a pleasure and I am sure all HP3K 'supporters' in HP share
this appreciation.

Putting the 64 versus 32 'juvenile horsepower' buzz aside there are
a lot of things CSY can (and whereever your businesses need them, will)
do, to allow future growth both vertically and horizontally. Just in
software alone there are more than a handful of things that would
allow to make even better use of the exisiting hardware:

- Compilers, that optimize for use of more recent PA-PISC advantages
- removal of CM code and data structures in the OS (my personal soapbox)
- increased system limits (# of processes, XM, etc.)
- investigation of potential/existing bottlenecks (resource contention)
- larger files
- increased connectivity (Samba, etc.)
- <put your soapbox/think pink idea here>
(many of these are under investigation or in the 'works')

Just another private thought, but I am sure you will like it:

2 to 1.5 years ago I was much more worried about _my_ future with
working the 3K for/with HP than I am today. I am looking forward
for the next 5 to 10 years with you positively.

And when we do a 64 bit MPE, let's make sure we name the release MPE
64.0,
just to leap ahead of the rest of the crowd :-)

Goetz 'more said than I should, I guess'