A 64-bit Dec Alpha C compiler was found by Virtually Fun's neozeed earlier this year - the software archeologist has been searching for various test builds of Microsoft Windows NT, including an "AXP64/ALPHA64 port," deemed extra special due to it being the first 64-bit version of Windows 2000 Professional. The small discovery of this obscure compiler was celebrated, but its functionality is ultimately not all that useful - neozeed notes that the items have been sitting within 1999 vintage Windows Platform SDKs: "It turns out that the AXP64 compiler set has been hiding in plain sight for DECADES. I know that it's so unlikely that we'd ever see any public release of a 64-bit version of Windows for the Alpha, but oddly enough the compiler, headers and libraries are all there. YES. You can make full executes for AXP64/Alpha64. Of course with no OS, so it's not like you can run them."

He continues: "Sadly as of today, there is no way to test. There is one surviving machine with Windows 2003 AXP64, outlined in an article by Raymond Chen. It's a great read about how Alpha64 NT port came to be. The machine is still sitting in Microsoft Archives. Hopefully one day someone can dig it out." The story could have ended there, but a follow up post appeared on Virtually Fun earlier this week - courtesy of guest contributor Antoni Sawicki (aka tenox) who has also experimented with the cross-compiler. He provided a little bit more historical context before making an interesting announcement: "The Win64 project for AXP64 and IA64 was code named "Sundown." Sadly, 64-bit Alpha AXP Windows was never released outside of Redmond."