Alpha CPUs, was Re: [rescue] i860 Success

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Sun, 02 May 2004 @ 22:31 -0500, Eric Dittman said:

> > > > I still like Alpha better, even though it is old and crusty now.
> > > 
> > > Old and crusty?!?  Just because Intel wants to keep it dead so it doesn't
> > > compete with the x86, it's definately neither old nor crusty, IMO.
> > 
> > Old and crusty in the sense that it is a late 80s design, which in the
> > CPU world, is ancient history. 
> 
> I guess you hadn't been keeping up on the Alpha development.  The EV7 is
> in no way old, crusty, or a late '80s design.

Old != bad.  Don't read something in "old and crusty" that isn't there.

Most people believe that the latest is the greatest.

"Old and crusty" was mostly a sarcastic comment on that idea.  

The EV7 is a 90s implementation, but the Alpha is still an 80s design.
EV7 is evolutionary, not revolutionary.  You seem to think that is bad,
unless I'm reading you wrong.

Each generation of Alpha CPUs had been a better implementation of the
Alpha design.

Plenty of newer CPU designs are not as good as Alpha, so I don't see
that saying Alpha is old should be considered a put-down.

Regarding fabrication: I've read in places like comp.arch that the
fabrication process for Alpha is outdated and would need to be improved
if it continued.

HP seems to have decided the point is moot.

The EV7z is supposed to be the last release.


-- 
shannon "AT" widomaker.com -- ["I want this Perl software checked for
viruses.  Use Norton Antivirus." -- Charlie Kirkpatrick]