DEC Alpha's Are Dead

[llbbl]

Literally ..


End of the line for HP's Alpha
Published: August 18, 2004, 5:35 PM PDT

Hewlett-Packard will release its final Alpha processor on Monday, the beginning of the end for a chip dynasty that never was.

The Alpha EV7z, which runs at 1.3GHz, is the last Alpha chip on HP's road map, an HP spokesman confirmed. The chip will be incorporated into the existing HP GS 1280 server, which can hold up to 64 processors and costs several thousand dollars.

Although HP does not have plans to come out with further versions of the chip, it will continue to sell Alpha servers through 2006 and fully support these systems through 2011. HP has been encouraging customers to migrate toward other server platforms since the close of the Compaq merger.

Created by Digital Equipment and released in 1992, the Alpha often drew accolades from analysts and benchmark testers for its performance. The first Alpha ran at a record-breaking 200MHz. The 64-bit chip was engineered to run multiple operating systems--Unix in addition to Microsoft's Windows NT--and was expected to have a life span of 25 years.

[llbbl]

Here is a good article over at Wiki about the Alpha.


The DEC Alpha, also known as the Alpha AXP, is a 64-bit RISC microprocessor originally developed and fabricated by Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC), which used it in its own line of workstations and servers. Designed as a successor to the VAX line of computers, it supported the VMS operating system, as well as the DEC flavour of UNIX. Later open source operating systems also ran on the Alpha, notably Linux and certain BSD UNIX flavours. Microsoft supported the processor until Windows NT 4.0 SP6 and did not extend Alpha support to Windows 2000.

Alpha was born out of an earlier failed RISC project named PRISM. At the time, DEC had been working with the MIPS chipset for workstation designs, and unsurprisingly PRISM shared many features with the MIPS. PRISM had been designed with the intension of releasing a new operating system along with it, known as Emerald, which would allow it to run "native" programs at full speed while also supporting Digital's existing VMS programs from the VAX after minor conversion. DEC management never understood why they needed a new machine to replace their existing cash cow, and eventually killed the project in 1988.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEC_Alpha

[openbsd-flipp]

The news is borderline depressing based on the fact that alpha's kicked serious ass untill compaq/hp decided not to push the chip sales/development. R.I.P

[llbbl]

CISC is dominating the personal computer market so well that it has leverged these strengths (everyone is buying new chips and they are being made in larger quantities at lower prices ) to make serious advances in the server market. I think this is the reason we are seeing a serious decline when it comes to RISC based systems. The costs assoicated with these systems are just too high. Why buy something that costs 10x more than a CISC system that performes just as well.

[llbbl]

Read more about RISC here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RISC

[openbsd-flipp]

Even so the price is not to bad when you find one on ebay and they are able to handle a beating better then an i386 setup in a UNIX-based system. Besides having an Alpha powered NetBSD box is just cool.

[llbbl]

Even so the price is not to bad when you find one on ebay and they are able to handle a beating better then an i386 setup in a UNIX-based system. Besides having an Alpha powered NetBSD box is just cool.


I agree totally!