How much better was DEC Alpha than contemporaneous x86?
2020年2月6日 · 94. The DEC Alpha, released in 1992, seems like an early implementation of a fully 64-bit microprocessor architecture. Its release led to quite a bit of both marketing hype and genuine vendor support in the mid-1990s, which supported the conclusion that Alpha would be a serious challenger to Intel x86, at least in the high-end performance and ...
Why did DEC develop Alpha instead of continuing with MIPS?
2020年12月7日 · 38. The main thrust of the marketing behind the DEC Alpha was its 64-bit microprocessor architecture. They got there years before potential competitors, including MIPS. At the time DEC was shipping the 64-bit Alpha, MIPS was just beginning to have success with the 32-bit MIPS R3000 being used by SGI.
hardware - DEC Alpha: why no 8/16-bit load/stores?
2020年2月25日 · Among other things, if one wishes to use error-corrected memory that can correct single-bit errors, a memory that can be written in independent 8-bit chunks byte-writable memory will require four extra bits per octet, or 16 bits per 32-bit word. A memory that is limited to writing 16-bit chunks will require five bits extra per 16-bit word, or ...
What happened to all those Unix workstations in the '90s?
2022年2月1日 · Even DEC Alpha DS10s were PCI-based but the lack of extensive graphics didn't make it a powerhouse unless it had graphics processing boards that cost 5-digit sums of money to pull off arcade levels of frame rate or rendered to a FrameStore.
dec - Understanding PALcode - Retrocomputing Stack Exchange
2021年5月4日 · In short, it's running in a special mode, and it can be as special as the hardware designers want it to be. PALcode is machine-specific but is intended to be used to present a consistent interface to the OS. From your description, it sounds like PALcode is the Alpha equivalent to x86 System Management Mode. (i.e.
Was There a Release of WMI for Windows NT 4.0 Running on DEC …
2021年1月22日 · Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) was made available as a separate download for Windows NT 4.0 SP4 and above. I know that WMI installs and works great on Intel IA32 (x86) flavors of NT4, because I have the WMI redistributable and I've tested it. However, Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 4 (SP4), SP5, SP6, and SP6a were released for both …
Did Windows NT 4 emulate x86 on non-Intel platforms?
2023年6月12日 · It uses FX!32 for emulation. FX!32 is a software emulator program that allows Win32 programs built for the Intel x86 instruction set to execute on DEC Alpha-based systems running Windows NT. Released in 1996, FX!32 was developed by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) to support their Alpha microprocessors. Share.
Why did Microsoft start Windows NT at all?
2022年12月3日 · Towards the end of the 80s, a number of threats for the PC ecosystem were emerging. The first was RISC CPUs, which provided greater performance than x86-style CPUs, and led many to consider that CISC designs like x86 were a dead end (see How much better was DEC Alpha than contemporaneous x86? for example). The second was Unix, which, despite ...
Newest 'dec' Questions - Retrocomputing Stack Exchange
The DEC Alpha, released in 1992, seems like an early implementation of a fully 64-bit microprocessor architecture. Its release led to quite a bit of both marketing hype and genuine vendor support in ...
DEC "CI" bus, better known as? - Retrocomputing Stack Exchange
2020年9月23日 · From the point of view of a programmer in DEC, CI was the term for a specific technology. It showed up in product names too: e.g., the CI780 module that plugged into a VAX 11/780 backplane to allow it to be connected up to a star coupler. If you look at the Software Product Description for VAX clusters, you'll see "OpenVMS Cluster software ...