[Info-vax] Chinese Alpha?

[Paul Sture]

On Mon, 30 Apr 2012 05:11:08 +0000, glen herrmannsfeldt wrote:

> JF Mezei <jfmezei.spamnot at vaxination.ca> wrote:
> 
> (snip)
>> Assuming that Samsung has full access to the Alpha IP, would this be of
>> use to them when implementing their ARM chips, or would the
>> designs/technilogies/ideas of Alpha apply only to work at a lower
>> level, done by ARM in england and and thus have no value to the
>> "packaging" done by Samsung ?
> 
> Alpha is an ISA (instruction set architecture) originally implemented
> about 20 years ago. The ISA may be applicable today, but the details of
> the implementations likely aren't.
> 
> As far as I know, there is no reason Alpha couldn't be implemented in
> current technology, and be successful in the market.
> 
> Now, it might be that some details of old Alpha implementations could be
> useful in new designs, but most of the lower level (gate level) ideas,
> as far as I know, wouldn't.

Wasn't Alpha quite power hungry?  And isn't that ARM's advantage over 
Intel?

http://buswk.co/IOdN51

"Until recent years, Intel (Intel) focused its efforts on what’s called 
the “clock speed” of CPUs, rapidly increasing the performance of computer 
chips to handle desktop operating systems and processor-intensive 
applications better. Less thought was given to reducing the power 
consumption requirements of these chips.

RAMPING UP PERFORMANCE

Contrast that with chips built on the ARM architecture, which is licensed 
to chipmakers such as Nvidia, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, Freescale, and 
a host of others. Instead of the “top down” strategy of boosting 
performance first and focusing on power requirements second, ARM chips 
have used a “bottom up” approach. Early ARM chips weren’t capable of 
running complex software but could run for days between charges. Once the 
power requirements of the silicon were effectively managed, ARM chips 
began to ramp up performance, most recently with quad-core chips that can 
offer 16 hours of high-definition playback on a tablet."


-- 
Paul Sture