[Info-vax] Chinese Alpha?

[David Froble]

Bob Koehler wrote:
> In article <jnq1mq$no$1 at solani.org>, Michael Kraemer <M.Kraemer at gsi.de> writes:
>> I don't get it what magical design features the Alpha has, which
>> would make it still attractive, even if it had been developed further.
>> It's a design more than twenty years old, patents would have expired,
>> and even by DEC's exaggerated claims it would reach its predicted
>> lifetime in five years from now.
>>
> 
>    DEC's claims were based mostly on the state of the art when Alpha was
>    new.  By the time alpha was abandoned DEC was putting things into
>    Alpha that I don't think DEC had considered when it was new.
> 
>    DEC made mistakes, like not realizing how important byte and word
>    operations are to some applications.  And later DEC fixed some of
>    those mistakes.
> 
>    Processors have gotten faster since the day Alpha was abandoned, 
>    but the notions folks had about future processors then don't seem to
>    have all panned out.  EPIC isn't the dragon slayer.  CISC x86 is
>    still competing with RISC.
> 
>    When Alpha was built, it was THE fastest processor for many
>    applications, and competitive for all.  I'm sure it's competitors
>    could make the same claim.  If the advances applie to other
>    processors were made to Alpha it would still be competitive.
> 
>    In addition to performance, DEC was looking at the doubling of
>    address space every 25 years.  That hasn't happened, few applications
>    are stretching 64 bits.
> 
> 

Consider it lack of comprehension.  Going from the number 32 to the number 64 is just one 
more bit.  But going from 32 bit numbers to 64 bit numbers just might be a bit more than 
people normally can comprehend.  Talking about such is cheap, but a recent discussion here 
on c.o.v mentioned that it's not practical to physically get that much memory into a 
computer.  At least at today's densities.

64 bit data paths might be useful.  64 bit addresses probably aren't.  Always might be the 
exception.