Hacker News Reader

Linux for Alpha probably deserves some credit for getting everything 64-bit-ready years before x86-64 came out.

Well, in the sense of Alpha being the first 64-bit Linux port, and thus having to fix a lot of places where "bitness" assumptions had crept into the codebase.

DEC (Compaq?) had some plans to make cheaper Alpha workstations, and while they managed to drive down the price somewhat, the volumes were never there to make them price-competitive with PC's. (See also the Talos Raptor POWER machines..)

EV6 CPUs could ostensibly use the same chipsets etc. as Athlon (in fact, some Alpha motherboards used Athlon chipsets). That was part of the strategy to increase volume.

Then came Compaq and its love for intel.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com