By: Paul DeMone (pdemone.delete@this.igs.net), July 10, 2006 5:12 am
Room: Moderated Discussions
David Kanter (dkanter@realworldtech.com) on 7/10/06 wrote:
---------------------------
>Hey Everyone,
>
>We have a new article online that is a real treat. The second part of John Mashey's analysis of the VAX is now up:
>
>http://www.realworldtech.com/page.cfm?ArticleID=RWT062006031650
>
>In his first article, Dr. John Mashey examined the economics of microprocessors
>and computer systems. In this second article, Dr. Mashey takes a retrospective
>look at the microprocessor world in the early 1990’s when the VAX was declining,
>and RISC architectures were on the rise. In particular, he demonstrates the significant
>performance advantage of early RISCs over the VAX, and how this put DEC into a very difficult situation product-wise.
>
>The first article can be found at:
>http://www.realworldtech.com/page.cfm?ArticleID=RWT012406203308
>
>If you want to brush up.
>
>The third part of the article may take us a little while to get into shape, because
>it is the most technically deep and complicated. However, we look forward to bringing it out in the future.
>
>I'd like to thank John for letting us reprint the article, and also thank Bob Colwell,
>Andy Goldstein and several others for their input.
In table 1 there is an entry for a 266 MHz 21164. Its
process technology is shown as 0.35 um. This is
incorrect. The second generation Alpha didn't reach
0.35 um (i.e. the 21164A AKA EV56) until after PPro
and was intro'd at 400+ MHz IIRC and subsequently
went to onto 500 and eventually 600 MHz speed
grades.
---------------------------
>Hey Everyone,
>
>We have a new article online that is a real treat. The second part of John Mashey's analysis of the VAX is now up:
>
>http://www.realworldtech.com/page.cfm?ArticleID=RWT062006031650
>
>In his first article, Dr. John Mashey examined the economics of microprocessors
>and computer systems. In this second article, Dr. Mashey takes a retrospective
>look at the microprocessor world in the early 1990’s when the VAX was declining,
>and RISC architectures were on the rise. In particular, he demonstrates the significant
>performance advantage of early RISCs over the VAX, and how this put DEC into a very difficult situation product-wise.
>
>The first article can be found at:
>http://www.realworldtech.com/page.cfm?ArticleID=RWT012406203308
>
>If you want to brush up.
>
>The third part of the article may take us a little while to get into shape, because
>it is the most technically deep and complicated. However, we look forward to bringing it out in the future.
>
>I'd like to thank John for letting us reprint the article, and also thank Bob Colwell,
>Andy Goldstein and several others for their input.
In table 1 there is an entry for a 266 MHz 21164. Its
process technology is shown as 0.35 um. This is
incorrect. The second generation Alpha didn't reach
0.35 um (i.e. the 21164A AKA EV56) until after PPro
and was intro'd at 400+ MHz IIRC and subsequently
went to onto 500 and eventually 600 MHz speed
grades.
