Re: SGI files for chapter 11

Malcolm Dunnett wrote:
However that same thinking suggested that the 80x86 architecture could
never keep up either and was doomed. I'm not a chip designer, but Intel
certainly seems to have found ways to get those speed enhancements without
sacrificing binary compatibility.

That is because the 8086's instruction set was much simpler than VAX's.
Intel didn't steal Vax tricks for its 8086, they stole Alpha tricks to
embed into the 8086.


would ever do it, but I wonder if it wouldn't be possible to build a
VAX chip today ( using all the latest and greatest tricks and processes )
that would be competetive with the x86 chips of today.

Yes, it would probably be possible. Put a risc engine are the very core
with vax instruction decoders layers above it. Would it be cost
effective ? Would it allow engineers to boost the speed of VAX chips as
fast as Intel/AMD boost their 8086s and keep up with the industry ? That
is the question.

But you'd also need to bring the VAX compilers up to speed with modern
times as well.
.

Relevant Pages

  • RE: Why was VAX abandonned ?
    ... Alpha was a pretty smart decision- not that the transition to alpha ... than vax was ever going to. ... >> not a memory limitation associated with the bit size? ... > to it than just the direction of the chip. ...
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  • Re: SGI files for chapter 11
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    (comp.os.vms)
  • RE: Wonderful things happen to an OS when it has an internal champion
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    (comp.os.vms)
  • Re: SGI files for chapter 11
    ... VAX chip today ... x86 is a very simple CISC compared with VAX, and the pipelining optimizations applicable to x86 and used in modern x86 implementations would not work nearly as well for the VAX ISA due to its complexity. ... density of which is essentially unaffected by instruction density). ...
    (comp.os.vms)
  • Re: FPGA VAX
    ... RT Logic is re-implementing VAX computer systems in FPGA for Hewlett ... and that's probably 10 times the resolution of the last VAX chip ... Have you priced out the set-up costs for a "run or two" at a foundry? ...
    (comp.os.vms)