[Info-vax] Linux support
Bill Gunshannon
bill at server2.cs.scranton.edu
Sat Feb 1 14:29:23 EST 2014
In article <lcjfn9$kcu$1 at dont-email.me>,
David Froble <davef at tsoft-inc.com> writes:
>
>
> Speculation.
>
> If everything had happened at once, desktops, notebooks, tablets, and
> smart phones, might CPUs such as Alpha have had a better chance? There
> might not have been the all invasive x86 to bury most others in it's
> economies of scale. The 2 things that made x86 was that it was used
> everywhere, and AMD's 64 bit extensions. Perhaps x86 might not have
> been able to bury Alpha and Power and such because it would not have had
> the huge numbers. Keep in mind, Intel and AMD have spent big bucks to
> wring performance out of the architechure. Without cheap x86, the
> customers who still needed the "mainframes" (for lack of a better label)
> would have continued to pay more, and the development would have
> continued to be feasible.
>
> /Speculation
But that falls back, once again, on the idea that a technically
superior chip could have won that battle. It was never about
technical superiority. People here have often said "it's the
applications" and that is the crux of the matter. Probably the
biggest factor in the demise of Alpha was Microsoft dropping
support for it. Isn't it curious that after talk of "burning
boats" and "there will be no future ports, Itanium is it"
speeches Itanium's demise and with it all the systems that
relied on it came so soon after Microsoft dropped support?
Another interesting point is the claim by Microsoft that they
were not going to support another 64bit architecture when they
did that and yet they now support Arm as well as x86. See
where this is going?
Oh, and you made the comment that "Intel and Microsoft are
rather sleezy operations ....", well, that has been the fact
since IBM bailed out Intel to make processors for their new-
fangled thing called the IBM PC. Funny how they cose the
two companies with the least amount of ethics. But, with the
power and money of IBM behind you at that point in IT history,
how could they do anything but thrive.
bill
--
Bill Gunshannon | de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n. Three wolves
billg999 at cs.scranton.edu | and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
University of Scranton |
Scranton, Pennsylvania | #include <std.disclaimer.h>
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