[Info-vax] BOINC for VMS

[Neil Rieck]

> 
> In addition to what David Froble wrote a few hours ago...
> 
> Perhaps you're not aware (publicity was never DEC's forte) but Alpha
> had SIMD eventually. The Motion Video Instructions (MVI) were first
> introduced in 21164PC, and found in all 21264 and later.
> 
> I don't know about x86 SIMD so can't compare the two but the DEC/
> Compaq written MVI writeup at
> http://www.alphalinux.org/docs/MVI-full.html
> appears to be comprehensive.
> 
> One of the more unusual things that early Alphas could be used for,
> even before MVI, was indeed DSP-type stuff, especially when
> flexibility (of application and environment) was as important as raw
> performance. DSP chips are great for performance at specific DSP
> applications, but not always the world's easiest or most flexible
> tools to design and code for.
> 
> There were specialist math libraries and tools available for Alpha to
> simplify design and coding of DSP-type applications e.g. DEC's own
> DXML, the Kuch and Associates (KAP) preprocessor for Fortran and C
> available through DEC, and third party stuff like 3L's Parallel C. Or
> if you had clue of the right kind, DIY.
> 
> These days there are different ways of achieving the same kind of end
> result, e.g. the delegating the number crunching to a commodity
> graphics chip which you mention.
> 
> Back in the day, I worked with a couple of well known names using
> Alpha (21064 initially) for completely unrelated kinds of audio DSP
> application, and another couple also in unrelated fields looking at
> Alpha for flexible signal processing for phased array antennae.
> 
> By that stage DEC/CPQ pricing for this kind of product was
> sufficiently un-outrageous for Alpha to compete technically in some
> cases with both DSP and x86. Didn't last long though, after the top
> level political decision was made that Alpha was on the way out
> because IA64 was going to be the "industry standard 64 bit".

Wow, I learn something every day. I had no idea that SIMD (single instruction multiple data) instructions ever existed on Alpha. Up until your posting, I always thought that Alpha was a pure RISC machine while x86 bent the definition of RISC by allowing MMX/SSE. The article behind your link mentioned both Alpha and x86.

On a related note, I wonder if HPQ management (I sure that both Carly and Curly were involved) had any idea what they were flushing away when they killed Alpha.

Neil Rieck
Kitchener / Waterloo / Cambridge,
Ontario, Canada.
http://www3.sympatico.ca/n.rieck/