Digital Equipment Corporation this week introduced the Alpha 21264 family, a new generation of the high-powered 64-bit Alpha architecture that will break the GigaHertz (1,000MHz) speed barrier.

The third generation of the Alpha family promises to deliver up to five times the highest performance of any architecture available at present.

The Alpha 21264 family, which will support three major operating systems DIGITAL UNIX, OpenVMS and Windows NT, will drive high-end systems ranging from enterprise servers to high-speed workstations.

Alpha technology powered the computer intensive creation of special effects for the films Men in Black, Tomorrow Never Dies, and more recently, Titanic.