Author: Chris Carson
Date: 11:16:50 11/13/97
Go up one level in this thread
On November 13, 1997 at 13:49:48, Robert Hyatt wrote: >On November 13, 1997 at 12:19:31, Chris Carson wrote: > >>see article: http://www.currents.net/newstoday/97/11/11/news5.html >> >>Interesting article. Lots of power 400 to 700 MHZ, >>Lots of RAM (up to 3 gigabytes). >>128 bit cache (up to 4 megabytes L3) >>64 bit power >>Native Windows NT 5.0, no translation needed. >> >>I hope this puts pressure on Intel!! :) >> >>Looks like 1998 might bring some competition. >> >>Best Regards, >>Chris Carson > >I've been impressed with the alpha's since day one. *however*, there is >one confusing issue I don't have an explanation for yet. > >B.T. Fraise had a 533mhz alpha running on ICC. He was getting around >150K >nodes per second with Crafty, which he runs there as "Data". Jason used >a >plain vanilla DEC alpha/500mhz in Paris, and we were getting around 250K >nodes per second. He compared that machine to a P6/200 using the same >OS (NT) and was getting around 80K. So the /500 gave us 250/80 speedup >which is a factor of 3.1 > >Data went from 80K to 150K, which was less than 2.0 speedup. Even >worse, >on his alpha, we saw *dramatic* speed variations, from 40K to 150K, >running >the *same* test position multiple times. It seems that there is some >cache >condition that can be badly broken, or *something*. Because we did not >see >this wild fluctuation on the Digital machines. > >main point of all this is that a cheap alpha might be a "cheap alpha". >We >need some data to compare all of these machines, and find out why some >are >dogs and others are vipers. > >BTW, there are *new* products coming from DEC. Stay tuned for some 1ghz >and >up announcements before long. That will be exciting... I've heard lots >of >rumors from former students that work up there, indicating that their >1ghz >machine will be significantly more than 2x faster than their /500 21164. >Crafty's already drooling. :) > >damned near shorting out my P6 motherboard in fact. :) Yes, I have always liked DEC (alpha) machines. I agree with you about "cheap" alpha. Buyer be ware! :) 1GHZ - I can't wait. I think I will use Crafty as a bench mark to compare speedup with. Best Regards, Chris Carson
This page took 0 seconds to execute
Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700
Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.