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"The Alpha project's main computer architects/designers were Rich Witek, Dick Sites, and Trygve Fossum."
I removed the blurb discussing the abbreviation AXP and two of its other interpretations because:
— Ryanaxp 15:04, Jun 22, 2005 (UTC)
Someone just changed the Multia from a 21068 to a 21066. If the 21066 was named LCA ("Low Cost Alpha"), then IIRC, that's correct 'cause Multia used LCA as did at least one Single Board Computer built by DEC.
Atlant 16:55, 12 July 2006 (UTC)
Do we have any references for the existance of a 21466 variant of the EV8? Letdorf 10:24, 25 September 2006 (UTC).
Re: Tryggve Fossum
While he was/is a respected and significant contributor to Alpha, the two architects of Alpha were Dick Sites and Rich Witek. Ref: The AARM (Alpha Architecture Reference Manual)
Also, the main page references "Tarantula". The code name for EV-8 was Arana (tilde over the 'n') as in spanish for spider. That was because it was envisioned as an 8-way machine. Ref: personal knowledge.
Qualifications of personal knowledge: I was part of AMT (Alpha Migration Tools) (various binary translator products) from 1992 - 2000 when I left the company. AMT was initially a subgroup of the AD (Advanced Development) organization of Digital Semiconductor.
209.6.240.225 17:53, 29 June 2007 (UTC) Rick Gorton (gorton at no spam dot theworld dot com)
The CPU table contains a few errors and unverified or assumed information.
Firstly, the bandwidth figures listed for the Alpha are wrong. Instead of stating the bandwidth of the Alpha's data bus, the bandwidth of the computers which used an Alpha CPU was used stated instead. This is misleading as it states bandwidths of the computers, not the Alpha, which is what this article is about.
Secondly, I have found no credible evidence supporting the values for the cancelled 21464 CPUs. The values in the table seem to be assumptions or speculations based on the specifications of previous models. If I am wrong, and there are credible sources for these values, they should have links in the references section. Rilak 16:42, 17 September 2007 (UTC)
Should this article be renaming to "Alpha (architecture)" or something similar? "DEC Alpha" is not what the architecture or the microprocessors was called and I think for the sake of accuracy, the title should reflect this. All over Wikipedia, there are instances where articles refer to the Alpha architecture or Alpha microprocessors as "DEC Alpha". This is simply just plain wrong. If the company behind the architecture or microprocessor must be stated, "DEC" and "Alpha" should be separately linked. Take a look at MIPS architecture. You don't see it being called "MIPS MIPS", "MIPS Computer Systems MIPS" or "SGI MIPS" do we? It is a good example of how much better such a scheme (<name> architecture) is. Comments? Rilak ( talk) 13:39, 22 August 2008 (UTC)
There was an EV69, but it was mostly just a stepping stone to the EV7. There is surprisingly very little web info on it. It used a 0.13 process. I think IBM did the fabbing. VMS Mosaic ( talk) 17:55, 5 September 2008 (UTC)
The table shows scache and bcache -- what's the difference? Is one off-chip, one on? Thanks! Brianski ( talk) 01:14, 22 October 2008 (UTC)
The article says "The unproduced EV8 would have been the first to include simultaneous multithreading, but this version was caught up in the sale to Compaq."
This is not correct, as EV8/Arana (with a ~ over the n) development kept on going just fine (I did verification on the F-Box) after the formation of Comical (Compaq+Digital...). But I left a year left later, and quite some time after that I read that the current state of EV8 development was being sold to Intel along with other Alpha IP and Alpha engineers (funny newspaper photo showed Tryggve Fossum and others walking with arms a-swinging, as if from one office to another). So one might assume that pieces of EV8 ended up in future Intel processors.
But can anyone put a more precise date on the end of EV8? "caught up in the sale to Compaq" is just way off.
143.116.116.200 ( talk) 19:05, 1 May 2009 (UTC)
I have attempted to improve the article by describing the architecture instead of the implementations. As part of this refocus, I propose that the three images in the lede, the "Performance" and "Alpha-based systems" be removed. The rationale for these proposed changes is that they do not further one's understand of the ISA. One does not find in Appendix C: A Survey of RISC Architectures for Desktop, Server and Embedded Computers of Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach photographs of implementations and descriptions of where implementations are used. This information is better presented in the articles about the implementations such as Alpha 21064, Alpha 21164, Alpha 21264 and Alpha 21364. (Please note that derivatives of each generation are described in the same article). Much of the information that I propose be removed is already present in more appropriate articles. Rilak ( talk) 06:47, 4 June 2009 (UTC)
Do we want a section discussing Dec suing Intel for IP violations? IIRC that was quite the dustup in 1997 or thenabouts; I have always wondered if part of HP selling the Alpha IP to Intel after aquiring it was to entirely put any remaining pending legal process to bed. 65.46.169.246 ( talk) 17:46, 13 October 2010 (UTC)
![]() | This page is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page. |
"The Alpha project's main computer architects/designers were Rich Witek, Dick Sites, and Trygve Fossum."
I removed the blurb discussing the abbreviation AXP and two of its other interpretations because:
— Ryanaxp 15:04, Jun 22, 2005 (UTC)
Someone just changed the Multia from a 21068 to a 21066. If the 21066 was named LCA ("Low Cost Alpha"), then IIRC, that's correct 'cause Multia used LCA as did at least one Single Board Computer built by DEC.
Atlant 16:55, 12 July 2006 (UTC)
Do we have any references for the existance of a 21466 variant of the EV8? Letdorf 10:24, 25 September 2006 (UTC).
Re: Tryggve Fossum
While he was/is a respected and significant contributor to Alpha, the two architects of Alpha were Dick Sites and Rich Witek. Ref: The AARM (Alpha Architecture Reference Manual)
Also, the main page references "Tarantula". The code name for EV-8 was Arana (tilde over the 'n') as in spanish for spider. That was because it was envisioned as an 8-way machine. Ref: personal knowledge.
Qualifications of personal knowledge: I was part of AMT (Alpha Migration Tools) (various binary translator products) from 1992 - 2000 when I left the company. AMT was initially a subgroup of the AD (Advanced Development) organization of Digital Semiconductor.
209.6.240.225 17:53, 29 June 2007 (UTC) Rick Gorton (gorton at no spam dot theworld dot com)
The CPU table contains a few errors and unverified or assumed information.
Firstly, the bandwidth figures listed for the Alpha are wrong. Instead of stating the bandwidth of the Alpha's data bus, the bandwidth of the computers which used an Alpha CPU was used stated instead. This is misleading as it states bandwidths of the computers, not the Alpha, which is what this article is about.
Secondly, I have found no credible evidence supporting the values for the cancelled 21464 CPUs. The values in the table seem to be assumptions or speculations based on the specifications of previous models. If I am wrong, and there are credible sources for these values, they should have links in the references section. Rilak 16:42, 17 September 2007 (UTC)
Should this article be renaming to "Alpha (architecture)" or something similar? "DEC Alpha" is not what the architecture or the microprocessors was called and I think for the sake of accuracy, the title should reflect this. All over Wikipedia, there are instances where articles refer to the Alpha architecture or Alpha microprocessors as "DEC Alpha". This is simply just plain wrong. If the company behind the architecture or microprocessor must be stated, "DEC" and "Alpha" should be separately linked. Take a look at MIPS architecture. You don't see it being called "MIPS MIPS", "MIPS Computer Systems MIPS" or "SGI MIPS" do we? It is a good example of how much better such a scheme (<name> architecture) is. Comments? Rilak ( talk) 13:39, 22 August 2008 (UTC)
There was an EV69, but it was mostly just a stepping stone to the EV7. There is surprisingly very little web info on it. It used a 0.13 process. I think IBM did the fabbing. VMS Mosaic ( talk) 17:55, 5 September 2008 (UTC)
The table shows scache and bcache -- what's the difference? Is one off-chip, one on? Thanks! Brianski ( talk) 01:14, 22 October 2008 (UTC)
The article says "The unproduced EV8 would have been the first to include simultaneous multithreading, but this version was caught up in the sale to Compaq."
This is not correct, as EV8/Arana (with a ~ over the n) development kept on going just fine (I did verification on the F-Box) after the formation of Comical (Compaq+Digital...). But I left a year left later, and quite some time after that I read that the current state of EV8 development was being sold to Intel along with other Alpha IP and Alpha engineers (funny newspaper photo showed Tryggve Fossum and others walking with arms a-swinging, as if from one office to another). So one might assume that pieces of EV8 ended up in future Intel processors.
But can anyone put a more precise date on the end of EV8? "caught up in the sale to Compaq" is just way off.
143.116.116.200 ( talk) 19:05, 1 May 2009 (UTC)
I have attempted to improve the article by describing the architecture instead of the implementations. As part of this refocus, I propose that the three images in the lede, the "Performance" and "Alpha-based systems" be removed. The rationale for these proposed changes is that they do not further one's understand of the ISA. One does not find in Appendix C: A Survey of RISC Architectures for Desktop, Server and Embedded Computers of Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach photographs of implementations and descriptions of where implementations are used. This information is better presented in the articles about the implementations such as Alpha 21064, Alpha 21164, Alpha 21264 and Alpha 21364. (Please note that derivatives of each generation are described in the same article). Much of the information that I propose be removed is already present in more appropriate articles. Rilak ( talk) 06:47, 4 June 2009 (UTC)
Do we want a section discussing Dec suing Intel for IP violations? IIRC that was quite the dustup in 1997 or thenabouts; I have always wondered if part of HP selling the Alpha IP to Intel after aquiring it was to entirely put any remaining pending legal process to bed. 65.46.169.246 ( talk) 17:46, 13 October 2010 (UTC)