PPC 970 VS EV7

Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014
Would the PPC 970 be any match for the newly released Alpha EV7 (http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/3/28947.html).

The article mentions that Intel bought the Shrewsbury Alpha Team. Why didn't Apple do this?

They would have been able to make their own kick-ass chip.

Image your own dualie destop being more powerful than most of your companies high end servers (although this is currently possible if your company has intel for servers and considers them 'high-end')



Dobby.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 10
    And to the lazy ones: <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/3/28947.html"; target="_blank">Article on The Register</a>



    Furhter than that, I think these servers are high-end high-end, while Apple are only shooting for high-end..



    Other than that, 8 Gb memory bandwith per processor screams speed somehow..



    [Edit:] Url schmurl..



    [ 01-21-2003: Message edited by: T'hain Esh Kelch ]</p>
  • Reply 2 of 10
    The Alpha EV7 will completely blow the doors off of the 970 in every respect.... It's meant to. The chip itself is supposed to compete with the Itanium2 and the Power 4/Power 5 chips. From the SMP marks, it blows all of them out of the water.



    Alphas were always beautiful chips, but they consumed *far* more energy, and displaced *way* too much heat for a casual desktop machine. For serious number crunching, it can't be beat.



    Cherck this out, ripped from realworldtech.com:



    SPECOMP2001 results, base/peak:



    4 cpu:

    EV7/1150: 6027/6824

    I2/1000: 3762/4091



    8 cpu:

    EV7/1150: 10349/11929

    POWER4+/1450: 9458/ 9694

    PA8700+/875: 4375/ 4541



    16 cpu:

    EV7/1150: 17724/20637

    PA8700+/875: 7763/ 8788

    R14k/600: 7265/ 7726





    Also note that this isn't the same as SpecINT or SpecFP, this deals with CPU speed, OS/Application threading, and Memory bandwidth. IMHO, a much better judge of chip performance than just INT and FP, but still a demonstration of a "benchmark", and not "my specific situation" [yes, I know SPEC is comprised of various "real world" apps, yadda yadda yadda... they don't reflect how *I* use a machine, and therefore I take them with copious amounts of NaCl]



    .
  • Reply 3 of 10
    nevynnevyn Posts: 360member
    From eweek:



    Starting prices for the new line range from $64,400 to $117,000, officials said.



    --&gt; Not our problem.



    [ 01-21-2003: Message edited by: Nevyn ]</p>
  • Reply 4 of 10
    Then there's that backward compatibility issue. That is a key feature of the 970.
  • Reply 5 of 10
    yevgenyyevgeny Posts: 1,148member
    To be honest, I am surprised that the Power4 held up that well against a brand new chip. People seem to forget that it is a tested and shipping part. Yes, the new alpha's are nice, but the letigimate FUD that surrounds thier last release will probably wind up killing their sales. People are hesitant to sink so much money into a chip line that everyone knows has no real future. A real bummer though, they were good chips.
  • Reply 6 of 10
    scottscott Posts: 7,431member
    Where I work we still use alphas with VMS. I work in a cave BTW
  • Reply 7 of 10
    telomartelomar Posts: 1,804member
    [quote]Originally posted by Yevgeny:

    <strong>Yes, the new alpha's are nice, but the letigimate FUD that surrounds thier last release will probably wind up killing their sales. </strong><hr></blockquote>



    Only reason these chips ever made it to market is because a large government entity wanted them and aren't easily said no to. HP really doesn't want the Alphas to sell. If they did they'd have no trouble selling them.
  • Reply 8 of 10
    [quote]Originally posted by Telomar:

    <strong>HP really doesn't want the Alphas to sell. If they did they'd have no trouble selling them.</strong><hr></blockquote>Idiots! But then again.. the do sell PCs so they're idiots by default.
  • Reply 9 of 10
    amorphamorph Posts: 7,112member
    The Alpha is a fine example of how a competitive market rewards a product that's too good: Shortly after its release, the original developer (DEC) got completely screwed over by MS, then sued for patent violations by Intel when they were too poor to defend themselves. Intel got the engineers and the rights to the Alpha as part of a settlement, and promptly killed it.



    We've got a dual Alpha running VMS purring away in the server room. It screams. It's such a shame that DEC got screwed.



    See also Tucker.
  • Reply 10 of 10
    scottscott Posts: 7,431member
    I just heard today that we're getting one of these new alphas in. An 8 way server. Serial number 004 Who got the first three?
Sign In or Register to comment.