Author: Dan Homan
Date: 07:35:55 07/07/99
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On July 06, 1999 at 22:35:28, Bruce Moreland wrote: > >On July 06, 1999 at 19:35:26, Andrew Slough wrote: > >>On July 06, 1999 at 19:01:02, Zachariah Amela wrote: >> >>>One other posters referred me to an Alpha system when I asked about >>>multiprocessor machines. I also have a friend who swears by the Alpha because >>>he says it's integer crunchy is bar-none. >>> >>>So tell me about the Alpha? >> >>Alphas are high performance RISC processors designed by digital to have as lower >>clock cycle time (higher speed) as possible. Compaq recently showed a normally >>cooled 1000 Mhz Alpha processor whereas I think the fastest normally cooled x86 >>processor is K7 at 600Mhz. An Alpha should be quite a bit faster per-cycle than >>an Intel processor too - Alpha 21164 & 21264 are quad out of order issue 64-bit >>processors. Although P2/3 can issue 3 instructions per cycle, the registers are >>only dual ported, which in practice limits it to two. P2/K6/K7 are 32 bit >>processors, which make them slightly worse for programs that use bitboards. They >>also 32 64-bit general purpose registers compared to x86's paltry 4 32-bit. >> >>>I understand it will run Unix and NT. But what >>>makes it better? >>>What is the cost? >> >>I would think you would be talking about $2000-$3000 minimum. >> >>>How much horsepower are we talking? >> >>SpecInt95 >>Digital Alphaserver 6/575 (575Mhz) - 30.3 >>Intel Pentium III/500 (500Mhz) - 20.6 > >I think that this particular machine is probably fantastically expensive. When >I checked a couple of years ago I couldn't find any Alpha machine made by >Digital that was less than $10,000. Have their prices come down? > >It used to be possible to get a nice Alpha clone for a sane price, but I don't >know of anyone selling the new 21264 in a clone. If someone has a 21264 in a >clone it could be worth checking out. www.microway.com is selling them, I believe. I saw dual-processor 21264 machines for around $13,000 at their site. That was some months ago, however. - Dan > >bruce
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