[Info-vax] OpenVMS I64 V8.1 "Evaluation Release"?

[Dennis Grevenstein]

Michael Kraemer <M.Kraemer at gsi.de> wrote:

> I can't quite understand that 64bit hype either.
> Iirc throughout the 1990s there wasn't a single RISC workstation
> which supported more than 2GB of RAM, not even those which
> already had a 64bit CPU inside.
> Only the very last of their kind, appearing in the first half
> of the 2000s, could be stuffed with RAM exceeding 4GB.

As you yourself like to say, it can be important to be
compatible across the whole line from a workstation
to the bigger servers. If you just count workstations,
what about the Sun Ultra 80 (4GB), SGI Octane (8GB)
and several HP Cxxx or Cxxxx workstations with at least
a PA8000 CPU?

> If one really desperately needed >4GB,
> one could just as well have chosen
> one of the mature 64bit RISC platforms.

One could have chosen one of the mature RISC platforms over
x86_64, but for some reason it was adopted really fast.
If anything, we can state that Intel couldn't get the Itanium out
fast enough. All the other 32bit -> 64bit updates took many
years before 64bit software was ready.
MIPS R4000 1991 - IRIX 6.2 1996
PA8000 1996 - HP-UX 11.00 1997
UltraSPARC I 1996 - Solaris 7 1998
Alpha 1992 - OpenVMS 7.1 1997

When Intel introduced the 80386, people were happy with 4MB
of RAM, also not the maximum for a 286. The 386 of course was
the silicon foundation for a gigantic chipzilla monument.
"serious users will choose $RISC over x86"
"serious users will choose VMS over Unix"
"serious users will choose UNIX over Linux"
...
some story all over again.
Before you ask: yes that does make me a little sad.

Dennis

-- 
 Nichts begrüßt einen freudiger als ein nasser Hund.
(Werner Koczwara)