January-2006 Update

This next paragraph came to me last week (Jan-2006) in a personal email from an ex-Intel employee.

<quote>

"Given your interest in VMS you might find this amusing. In the early 1990's we visited Microsoft to try to ensure that their new OS "Windows NT" would be available on IA32. We met with Dave Cutler, and he was adamant that IA32 was doomed and would we please get lost so he could target Alpha and then whatever 64-bit architecture was certain to replace IA32 by Intel. It was not a polite disagreement; that guy (Cutler) HATED IA32 and wasn't reluctant to transfer his displeasure to IA32's representatives (us). What an ugly business meeting. Smart guy, though."

</quote>

I asked for a clarification on the phrase "IA32" as it pertains to this quote and was told that it refers to both 486 (which was in production in 1990) and Pentium (586 or P5) which was still in development.