[PLUG] SRM console and Alpha update...

Michael Robinson plug_1 at robinson-west.com
Thu Sep 17 02:06:58 UTC 2009


On Mon, 2009-09-14 at 06:26 -0700, wes wrote:
> It is at least possible to find the RAM you mentioned:
> 
> http://www.memory4less.com/m4l_itemdetail.asp?rid=fd_10&itemid=1438949855
> 
> sale price 165.23... have fun with that.
> 
> At the risk of opening Pandora's box..... why are you spending so much time
> on Alpha stuff?
> 
> -wes
> 
Why Alpha got into the hands of Compaq followed by HP, I am not certain.

Sadly, Alpha could have been a significant alternative to Itanium that
would have competed well if it had been continued.

The market is dominated by Intel and this is not healthy.  The IA32 
and Itanium architecture are probably highly complex and complicated.  
A simpler architecture built for speed like the Alpha should in 
theory be easier to support Linux on.

Should Sparc die out because it is not an Intel compatible architecture?

Heck, these days Intel even makes the Mac.

But seriously, why did a computer architecture that was creaming the
IA32 architecture on floating point lose to the Itanium architecture?

I suppose AMD processors, which are not a different architecture really
from Intel's, are the only alternative left in the mini and micro
computer world.

The Wintel monopoly is well known and frankly it is sickening that these
two companies work so closely together.  The DEC Alpha could have broken
that up a bit.  Intel Mac and Intel PC are not enough, there need to be
more choices than that.  It's kinda like saying, "You can have any car
you want, as long as it's black."

There are a few problems with Alpha that show how tightly Intel and
Microsoft are married.  Windows NT 4.0 on Alpha is out of support now,
but even before support ended there was no easy way to know where to
get Windows NT Alpha software where the PC version wouldn't work.
FX32 wasn't that great.  On the other hand, this poor support for
Windows software translates to poor support for Windows viruses and
worms.  Using an Alpha for a server instead of a PC is theoretically
safer.  Using the Alpha these days is like using Latin.

I don't see trying to upgrade the memory in my Alpha as opening
Pandora's box at all.  I don't like where computers are today.
I don't like that Linux used to run on 5 or 6 different computer
architectures equally well where these days it only seems to run 
well on just one or two.  Does Redhat even support Linux on 
Sparc anymore?  Is Sparc dead?  How about MIPS and PowerPC?  
PowerPC is an interesting concept, a powerful computer that 
can run software meant for both Macs and IBM compatible 
personal computers.  What happened to that concept?

Why isn't there a software company supporting a non Itanium computer
architecture that isn't tied to Intel?  Intel is becoming too 
powerful.  Windows should have lost major market share a long time
ago, but Intel has been tying the most common computer hardware to
it.  Even Mac these days uses Intel hardware.

I think the Alpha is a great architecture with no hacks like the IA32
and Itanium architectures.  Alpha's have a young architecture that was
never taken to it's full potential.




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