Subject: Re: Any experince with this alpha?
To: Chris G Demetriou <Chris_G_Demetriou@ux2.sp.cs.cmu.edu>
From: John C. Hayward <John.C.Hayward@wheaton.edu>
List: port-alpha
Date: 08/26/1996 17:27:47
On Mon, 26 Aug 1996, Chris G Demetriou wrote:
> > > I ordered a couple of those machines, and also got 2 16MB simms for
> > Are the sims the same kind (72 pin with/wo parity) which are readily
> > available for the PC market?
>
> yes.
Great!
> > > It's an OK deal, i'd say. They're not incredibly speedy machines.
> > > I'd guess that an intel box would beat them in terms of
> > > price/performance, but i can't say for sure.
> >
> > The 166MZ Pentium Pro chip is about $600 on the net.
> > The 166MZ Pentium chip is about $800. (I think Intel is trying to get
> > people on to the Pentium Pro).
> >
> > [ ... ]
> >
> > Is it possible that the 166MHZ Alpha perform at 69 SPECint92 (97 * 166/233)
> > while the 100MHZ regular Pentium performs at 138 SPECint92 (_Twice_ the
> > speed?)
>
> In a nutshell, yes.
Bummer :-{
>
> (0) processor cycle time and performance are not necessarily related.
Granted - RISC vs CISC
>
> (1) from what I understand, the 21066 apparently (due to design flaws)
> has some serious performance limitations, but i don't know
> exactly what they are.
Too bad.
>
> (2) the Multia/UDB/whatever typically only has 256k of cache. From
> all indications i've seen, this is too small a cache for good
> performance on an Alpha. Note that most of DEC's 21064-generation
> workstations ship with 512k cache, and the rest ship with a 2M or
> larger cache...
With 64bit word and RISC arch 256k would not be as effective when compared
to a 32bit word CISC.
>
>
>
> Chris
Wish this Alpha was close to performance of the Pentium Pro. For $800 to
get a case, good graphics card, SCSI controler (even though the disk is
small), eithernet, etc. it looks like a great deal - except if the
processor is going to be at the 50MZ Pentium speed.
I'll have to think about this some more.
johnh...