[Info-vax] Vaxes shutting off this week

[Michael Moroney]

billg999 at cs.uofs.edu (Bill Gunshannon) writes:

>In article <%qmql.8409$%54.6277 at nlpi070.nbdc.sbc.com>,
>	Michael Austin <maustin at firstdbasource.com> writes:
>> 
>> Hmm.. I wonder what would have happened had Alpha continued on the path 
>> and then did what all of the other processors had to do get more 
>> through-put, go multi-core with more front-end cache...
> 
>Can't you apply that same question to pretty much any old technology?


>   Hmm.. I wonder what would have happened had VAX continued on the path 
>   and then did what all of the other processors had to do get more 
>   through-put, go multi-core with more front-end cache...

>   Hmm.. I wonder what would have happened had PDP-11 continued on the path 
>   and then did what all of the other processors had to do get more 
>   through-put, go multi-core with more front-end cache...

A big difference is that the PDP and the VAX ran their courses and were
discontinued at an appropiate time.  Alpha was killed when it was pretty
much the fastest processor.  Who knows what may have happened if EV8 and
EV9 and beyond saw daylight?  However, Alpha was apparently a real "cash
furnace" which is why it got killed in the first place.