[Info-vax] Three boot camp sessions on YouTube

[Bob Koehler]

In article <e5edf4ce-52e0-4622-a2ad-dd16a71f37ac at googlegroups.com>, Neil Rieck <n.rieck at sympatico.ca> writes:
> 
> For me, the big difference between Alpha and Itanium in those videos was th=
> e register count (32 vs. 128).  Having 128 registers may have seemed like a=
>  good idea when they were designing that chip, but we all know that an OS i=
> s going to require some/all those registers to be periodically saved then r=
> estored (well, not all on every interrupt). I wonder if Intel would have im=
> plemented 128 had they known that dynamic memory technology would keep impr=
> oving as it has.=20

   It's been quite a few years since some chips started employing register
   sets, where swapping context doesn't mean dumping registers to RAM, just
   switching sets inside the CPU.  Don't know if any of the Intel
   offerings do this, but if not, then it's probably onlhy a matter of
   time.