End of the Alpha CPU (was: IBM Buys Rational for $2.1Billion!)

[pll at lanminds.com]

In a message dated: Fri, 06 Dec 2002 13:18:24 EST
bscott at ntisys.com said:

>Has IA-64 really gotten so much better that is can seriously be considered
>as a replacement for the PA-RISC and Alpha chips?

I don't claim to be a HW expert (actually, I'm pretty much ignorant 
of hw design all together).  But, I've been lead to believe that the 
biggest problem with Alpha as it is today, is one simply of neglect.

When Compaq bought DEC, development and R&D on next-gen Alpha pretty 
much stopped.  The Intel/DEC agreements also had a big part to play 
in that as well.  Any effort expended upon Alpha after those events 
seemed to be pretty much nothing more than life-sustaining measures 
for the current generation.

It's too bad.  I think Alpha could have advanced a lot further had 
the resources been put into it.  Being 10 year old technology as an 
excuse is not a good reason.  The iX86 architecture is essentially
20 years old now, and ethernet keeps getting faster, and that's close 
to 20 years old now too.  Heck, UNIX is 30+, television hasn't 
substantially changed in 40-50+ years, and radio is 100+ right? :)

Oh well, we can all dream about those BetaMax players we all coulda 
had too !
-- 

Seeya,
Paul
--
	It may look like I'm just sitting here doing nothing,
   but I'm really actively waiting for all my problems to go away.

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