[NTLUG:Discuss] OT: Server level processor comparison

[Bryan J. Smith]

Chris Cox wrote:  
> I found this to be an excellent article.
> Notice how well the old Alhpa does, even today.

Of course.  Digital didn't invent RISC with Alpha, they just made the
first 64-bit, uber-anal RISC architecture and paired it with the most
advanced system interconnect, years ahead of everyone else.

Alpha is so 32/64-bit anal, there are _no_ 8 or 16-bit instructions (not
even a 8/16-bit LOAD/STOR until the 2nd Gen 21164), they only added 5
multimedia/AV instructions.  Anything that could cause a bottleneck it
the superscalar schedular they left out.

The Alpha team also predicted that Intel's reliance on 100% compile-time
optimization via Explicitly Parallel Instruction Computation (EPIC) and
Branch Predication in IA-64 would be _inefficient_, as well as the fact
that it would be faster to emulate x86 in software than hardware in
IA-64.

Sure enough, Itanium2 and forthcoming "Madison" (Itanium3) are
retrofitting EPIC with run-time out-of-order execution and more
traditional branch prediction alongside predication, both from "licensed
Alpha technology" as Intel readily admits, and Intel's newer
"software-based x86 emulation" is nothing less than Digital's award
winning FX!32 technology for Alpha adapted for IA-64.

As I always say,
- Xerox invented everything in computing in the '70s
- Digital invented everything in computing in the '80s

> And see how Opteron currently crushes everyone.

Of course.

Digital basically invented _all_ of today's modern system interconnect
approaches, from non-uniform memory architcture (NUMA) to the PCI
bridge.

API Networks invented HyperTransport, not AMD.  API stands for Alpha
Processor, Inc., the off-shoot created after Digital sold off its Alpha
fabs to Samsung and Intel.

>From my understanding, half of the former Digital Semiconductor
engineers made an exodus to AMD when this happened, with the latter half
leaving API years later to also join AMD.


-- 
Bryan J. Smith, E.I. -- Engineer, Technologist, School Teacher
b.j.smith at ieee.org