<Elmer, Elmer, Elmer, Elmer,>
I feel like this is an episode of The Brady Bunch.
Anyway, Scumbria, you realize that the article you posted is dated April 6, 1998, which is kind of old. Microprocessor Report, 9/14/98, has a little blurb entitled "Alpha 21264 Whiffs on Performance Targets." Here a quote:
In a classic good news/bad news story, Compaq has measured its Alpha 21264 processor at 26.0 SPECint95 (base) and 40.9 SPECfp95 (base), a whopping 55% better than the fastest non-Alpha systems available today. ... The company expects to begin shipments by November.
The bad news is that these results are nowhere near the 40 int/60 fp estimates that Digital has been touting for the 21264. In addition, the chip is well behind initial plans to ship in 4Q97 as well as the revised schedule of 2Q98 shipments.
...
The 21264's problems also benefit Merced. Our previous projections showed a 0.18-micron 21264 exceeding Merced's performance. Based on the current numbers, we now expect the 21264 shrink to reach 45 int/70 fp in 2000, giving Merced more room to deliver on its claim of "industry-leading performance."
So not only is the 21264 being released much later than Digital promised, it's also much slower than Digital promised. It's still the leader, but with prices set at $65,000 per CPU, I don't think Intel will be trembling.
Tenchusatsu |
