[rescue] pursuing a VAX

[Francisco Javier Mesa-Martinez]

> > Again, we come to another full circle in the computer industry. A decade
> > ago there was the same debate: Speed Demons (MIPS, Alpha, HP-PA) vs.
> > brainiacs (POWER, 88K).....
>
> It seems that MIPS in in the brainiacs camp now.

PA-RISC also went that route with their 8X00 series, even Alpha after the
21164 is really a brainiac. Once the submicron processes became more
common in the 90's the amount of transistors on die just skirocketed so
you could just add more logic at the processor. Which makes more sense
than just ramp up the speed of the processor, since memory is not likely
to speed up by that much, and that will always be your bottlenect. So
instead of having a narrow memory interfaced with a fast processor, just
have a wider memory with a wider/slower processor. And booom, all of the
sudden you processor utilization skyrockets....

If you look at the actual utilization % for a P4 it is quite scary....