[Info-vax] VSI OpenVMS Alpha V8.4-2L1 Layered Product Subset Available

[Jan-Erik Soderholm]

Den 2017-07-10 kl. 21:41, skrev David Froble:
> clair.grant at vmssoftware.com wrote:
>> On Monday, July 10, 2017 at 1:34:29 PM UTC-4, Jan-Erik Soderholm wrote:
>>> Den 2017-07-09 kl. 22:45, skrev Jan-Erik Soderholm:
>>>
>>>> Note (and as the subject of this thread says) that all year it has
>>>> been talks about a 8.4-2L1 Alpha version. More or less a recompile
>>>> of the current 8.4-2L1 for Itanium. I noticed now that what was
>>>> downloaded earlier today was ALpha 8.4-2L2. The cover letter (dated
>>>> June-2017) says:
>>>>
>>> Now 2L2 is also official on the VSI site:
>>>
>>> http://www.vmssoftware.com/index.html
>>>
>>> http://www.prweb.com/releases/2017/07/prweb14487932.htm
>>>
>>> "Depending on the specific CPU and operating system features a customer’s
>>> application uses, the new Alpha V8.4-2L2 release could render performance
>>> improvements of between 15% and 50%. [...]", said Eddie Orcutt
>>
>> Those are real numbers from some tests we ran. Here is my simplistic way 
>> to look at it. Every execlet is 5%-10% smaller and RMS is 15% smaller, 
>> compared to unoptimized (the standard build). That means many, many code 
>> paths in the heart of the operating system are shorter with the use of 
>> byte/word instructions. You can certainly make a more precise analysis 
>> but that was from my quick look at comparing the result disks from the 
>> 2L1 and 2L2 builds, picked a bunch of routines and looked at the 
>> generated code.
>>
> 
> "Let's see, we got these EV6 and beyond processors.  Why aren't we taking 
> advantage of them?"
> 
> Good job!

And the number of Alphas, still in production use, that has
non-EV6 (or better) processors are probably very small.
Yes, a logical decision to take... :-)