Where should the type information be: in tags and descriptors 455

On Thu, 21 Apr 2005 17:30:58 +0200, Jan VorbrYggen

Were they the same clock speed? Now, my experience with performance is largely limited to PL-I code and ISTM that measuring throughput normalized by clock frequency suggests the opposite. Also Alpha images are two to three times larger, which would require bigger bandwidth to L2 cache from main memory. Furthermore, if the X86 architecture can be made to spin at 4GHz or there abouts, you could certainly have done the same for the VAX. The only reason the VAX was going to be non-compebreastive is because Digital failed to invest in it's further development. This was the argument used by the early proponents of the Alpha.

Why, X86 instruction set is not what you would come up with if you knew what you were doing, and VAX could just as well have been emulated on an underlying core.

Certainly may have been easier from a technical perspective, but disasterous from a business POV. And extending VAX to 64 bits surely would have been easier than the X86. But how much was spent on Alpha? Had a fraction of that gone to continuing development of the VAX Digital might not have had to go out of business

Anyway this is all water under the bridge at this point, but it certainly reinforces the view that VMS management has consistently failed in a strategic vision and sound business practice.