[Info-vax] BOINC for VMS

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2012-03-13 05.48, John Wallace wrote:
> On Mar 13, 1:21 am, Neil Rieck<n.ri... at sympatico.ca>  wrote:
>> Okay so here are a few more questions (based upon coffee  discussions today):
>>
>> 1) MVI first appears in EV56 which is early to mid 1996. According to the doc archives at Intel, MMX appears in Pentium in mid-1997 (although wikipedia says 1996). Did Intel borrow the idea from Compaq or was this just a coincidence?
>>
>> 2) Are there any SIMD instructions in Itanium?
>>
>> Neil Rieck
>> Kitchener / Waterloo / Cambridge,
>> Ontario, Canada.http://www3.sympatico.ca/n.rieck/
>
> SIMD predates both Alpha and x86. E.g. the VAX 6000 vector processor
> did SIMD, as doubtless did others less familiar round here.
>
> That said, there have been a number of patent disputes between DEC and
> Intel. I don't remember SIMD being mentioned in any of them, but that
> may be my memory at fault.
>
> Also due to unreliable memory, I cannot remember the Intel executive's
> name or exact words but I do remember one of them once said something
> functionally equivalent to "our chips are so advanced now that we've
> run out of ideas to copy". Suggestions welcome - it was reported in a
> few journals and probably referenced in this ng but I can't easily
> find it just now.
>
> Yes there are SIMD instructions in Itanium; the published
> documentation has details (and doubtless other sources too).

SIMD goes way back. Probably to the 60s. (As do probably everything, 
there hasn't been much invention in computers in a while...)

Does the name Cray ring a bell?

	Johnny