Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!hayes!usenet
From: fnddr@acad3.fai.alaska.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec
Subject: Re: "RISCy VAX" ??
Message-ID: <1990Jun11.172604.22994@hayes.fai.alaska.edu>
Date: 11 Jun 90 17:26:04 GMT
Sender: usenet@hayes.fai.alaska.edu (J Random USENET)
Organization: University of Alaska Fairbanks
Lines: 40

In article <1990Jun10.170616.6606@hod.uit.no>, tore@sfd.uit.no (Tore Larsen)
writes...
>The june 1st Computerworld Norway brought an article by Don Omondi wa Radoli
>concerning DEC.  In the article Radoli refers to a statement by Ken Olsen
>saying that DEC expects to offer a "RISC-y VAX" (Not my term!) within two 
>years.  Can anyone confirm if Ken Olson really has made this statement.  
> 
>If true, what does he mean by a RISC-y VAX and what are the consequences 
>for DEC's commitment to the MIPS architecture?
> 
> 
>--Tore

In the March 13, 1990 PC Magazine's "Abort, Retry, Fail?" humor page, they
have the following under the heading, "At That Speed, They'd Better Be Part
of a _Really_ Complex Instruction Set:"

  DEC officials also said that as many as 80 percent of VAX instructions
  on the VAX 9000 can be executed in one second, giving VMS customers a
  better perspective on the VAX architecture as compared with RISC systems.
  - Digital Review, October 30, 1989

While this statement seems plausible for the VAX architectures I've been using
the last several years, I presume they mean "...can be executed in one cycle."
Since executing all instructions in one cycle is a (the?) definition of RISC,
perhaps this is what they have in mind for a RISC-y VAX...getting more of the
instruction set to execute in a single cycle.  Even so, I doubt DEC will drop
the Mips chips anytime soon, since the Mips-based products are all that DEC
has that are competitive with Sun and IBM on a $/MIPS basis.  I think a Mips
R6000-based machine can almost match the VAX 9000 in VUPS for about 1/10 the
cost*, so it will be interesting to see how these product lines develop...

*I haven't seen detailed specs on the VAX 9000 (haven't really been looking)
but I think comparing costs and benchmarks for the 9000 and the Mips RC6280
might be an enlightening exercise.

Don Rice                                  Internet: fnddr@acad3.fai.alaska.edu
Geophysical Institute                     E-mail:   fnddr@alaska.bitnet
University of Alaska                      Phone:    (907) 474-7569
Fairbanks, AK 99775                       Loran:    64.86N 212.16E