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About DEC's Alpha processors

I found this documentation on Infomagic's Linux CD-ROM. You should be able to find the original pages on the Infomagic site somewhere. Let ($me_author) know the URL... It explains the Alpha processors, their chipssets and details to consider when porting Linux to them.

Intro to Alpha Systems and Processors

This document is a brief overview of existing Alpha CPUs, chipsets and systems. It has something of a hardware bias, reflecting my own area of expertese. Although I am an employee of Digital Equipment Corporation, this is not an official statement by Digital and any opinions expressed are mine and not Digital's.

What is Alpha?

Alpha is the name given to Digital's 64-bit RISC architecture. The Alpha project in Digital began in mid-1989, with the goal of providing a high-performance migration path for VAX customers. This was not the first RISC architecture to be produced by Digital, but it was the first to reach the market. When Digital announced Alpha, in March 1992, it made the decision to enter the merchant semicondutor market by selling Alpha microprocessors. Alpha is also sometimes referred to as Alpha AXP, for obscure and arcane reasons that aren't worth persuing. Suffice it to say that they are one and the same.

What is Digital Semiconductor?

Digital Semiconductor (DS*,www.digital.com/info/semiconductor/) is the business unit within Digital Equipment Corporation (Digital - we don't like the name DEC) that sells semiconductors on the merchant market. Digital's products include CPUs, support chipsets, PCI-PCI bridges and PCI peripheral chips for comms and multimedia.
local Alpha CPUs
local 21064 performance vs 21066 performance
local A Few Notes On Clocking
local The chip-sets
local The Systems
local Bytes and all that stuff
local Porting

More Information

All of the DS* evaluation boards and motherboard designs are license-free and the whole documentation kit for a design costs about $50. That includes all the schematics, programmable parts sources, data sheets for CPU and support chipset. The doc kits are available from Digital Semiconductor distributors. I'm not suggesting that many people will want to rush out and buy this, but I do want to point out that the information is available.

Hope that was helpful. Comments/updates/suggestions for expansion to Neal Crook, neal.crook@reo.mts.digital.com

References

http://www.research.digital.com/wrl/publications/abstracts/TN-13.html Bill Hamburgen, Jeff Mogul, Brian Reid, Alan Eustace, Richard Swan, Mary Jo Doherty, and Joel Bartlett. Characterization of Organic Illumination Systems. DEC WRL, Technical Note 13, April 1989.
Ad for PCI video capturing boards by Dektec.
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