[Info-vax] rx2800i2 sales/support window changes

[David Froble]

Johnny Billquist wrote:
> On 2014-02-14 00:03, JF Mezei wrote:
>> On 14-02-13 11:14, Shael Richmond wrote:
>>
>>> The bigger issue is whether we can get the required performance from 
>>> the emulator when stepping back from Integrity.  Also we have to deal 
>>> with license issues.
>>
>> Considering VMS is limited to Tukwila tech (which is already a few years
>> old), I suspect that x86 emulated solutions will be competitive quite
>> soon in terms of performance (if not already).
> 
> Good point about emulators maybe targeting newer than Tukwila.
> However, speedwise it might take a while. Have you seen much speed bumps 
> in x86 in the last five years?
> 
>> The danger is that if an IA64 emulator is done, it will emulate Poulson
>> which is not compatible with VMS. We know that existing Alpha emulators
>> are compatible with VMS.
>>
>> That leaves the rethorical question of whether a x86 emulating Alpha
>> instruction set would yield better/equal/worse performance than the same
>> x86 emulating the IA64 instruction set.
> 
> IA64 will probably be worse, because the frickin' instruction set is 
> horrible. Alpha is way cleaner, which will allow an emulator to spend 
> less time pretending to do weird shit.
> 
>     Johnny
> 

That's sort of how I felt, but I don't know enough about it to actually 
"know".

I also asked a while back whether VAX emulation might be faster or 
slower than Alpha emulation.  Regardless, VAX is 32 bits, and 
development of VMS for VAX ended in the V7.2 timeframe.