[Info-vax] Dave Cutler, Prism, DEC, Microsoft, etc.

[Michael Kraemer]

Richard B. Gilbert schrieb:
> FredK wrote:
> 

>>
>> Gads.  Take this as a lesson: had they been able to produce nVAX on 
>> time, there wouldn't have been a need for Alpha.   
> 
> That's highly questionable.  It was already known that a RISC 
> architecture plus an optimizing compiler could blow the doors off a CISC 
> system.

The VAX 4000 line wasn't too bad.
At least it would have prolonged the life of VAX/VMS a few more
years without the immediate necessity to port to sth else.
In the meantime DEC could have continued to improve the Mips line
for Unix and NT and maybe by mid-1990s decided whether it was
worth to port VMS too - or dump it.
Much less money to spend and much less hassle.

> Did anyone here ever try to run DECWindows on a VAXStation 2000?  The 
> Alpha Station 200 does it without even breathing hard.  Both machines 
> might be properly described as the slowest machines in their respective 
> architectures.

The problem with the VS2000 is not enough RAM.
More RAM can do wonders.

> Are there *any* CISC systems being manufactured today?  Even the 80x86 
> family is RISC at the core; the CISC instruction set is layered on top 
> of a RISC processor.

You can still buy most of the 68K chips.
Whether they are freshly manufactured or just catching
dust on some shelf I don't know.