DEC Alpha

The DEC Alpha, also known as the Alpha AXP, is a 64-bit RISC microprocessor originally developed and fabricated by Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC), which used it in its own line of workstations and servers. Designed as a successor to the VAX line of computers, it supported the VMS operating system, as well as Digital UNIX. Later open source operating systems also ran on the Alpha, notably Linux and BSD UNIX flavours. Microsoft supported the processor until Windows NT 4.0 SP6 but did not extend Alpha support beyond release candida ...

Including:

• DEC Alpha - History
• DEC Alpha - Versions
• DEC Alpha - Model history

Read more here: » DEC Alpha: Encyclopedia - DEC Alpha

Alpha was born out of an earlier RISC project named PRISM, itself the final product of several earlier projects. DEC had been marketing the DECstation line of workstations based on the MIPS architecture, and unsurprisingly PRISM shared many features with MIPS. Among the differences between PRISM and MIPS, however, was that PRISM supported a user-programmable microcode known as Epicode. PRISM had been designed with the intent of releasing a new operating system along with it, known as Emerald, which would allow it to run "native ...

See also:

DEC Alpha, DEC Alpha - History, DEC Alpha - Versions, DEC Alpha - Model history

Read more here: » DEC Alpha: Encyclopedia II - DEC Alpha - History

Alpha may refer to: Alpha (letter), a letter in the Greek alphabet. α may be used as the symbol for: Angle of attack in aerodynamics In physics Fine-structure constant, a fundamental physical constant Alpha particle, form of particle radiation H-alpha, or H-α, an emission line created by hydrogen atoms In Bayer designation, the typically brightest star in a constellation The significance level in stati ...

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Seymour Cray began working in the computing field in 1950 when he joined Engineering Research Associates (ERA) in Saint Paul, Minnesota. There, he helped to create the ERA 1103, regarded as the first successful scientific computer. ERA eventually became part of UNIVAC, and started to be phased out. He left the company in 1960, a few years after some former ERA employees set up Control Data Corporation (CDC). He eventually set up a lab at his home in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, about 85 miles to the east. Cray left CDC in 1972 to form his own company, Cray Research, with research and development facilities in Chippewa Falls bu ...

See also:

Cray Inc., Cray Inc. - The Cray Research years, Cray Inc. - The SGI years, Cray Inc. - Current status of Cray Inc., Cray Inc. - Financial troubles, Cray Inc. - Trivia, Cray Inc. - Computers

Read more here: » Cray Inc.: Encyclopedia II - Cray Inc. - The Cray Research years

In computing, binary translation is the emulation of one instruction set by another through translation of code. Sequences of instructions are translated from the source to the target instruction set. There is static binary translation, where an entire executable file is translated into an executable of the target architecture. This is very difficult to do correctly, since not all the code can be discovered by the translator. For example, some parts of the executable may be reachable only through ...

Read more here: » Binary translation: Encyclopedia - Binary translation

Cray Inc. is a supercomputer manufacturer based in Seattle, Washington. Cray Research was founded in 1972 by computer designer Seymour Cray. Already a legend in his field by this time, Cray put his company on the map in 1976 with the release of the Cray-1 vector computer. Cray left to form his own company, Cray Computer Corporation, which went bankrupt in 1995, while Cray Research was bought by SGI the next year. Today's company was formed in 2000 by a merger of Tera Computer Company with Cray, which Tera purchased from ...

Including:

• Cray Inc. - The Cray Research years
• Cray Inc. - The SGI years
• Cray Inc. - Current status of Cray Inc.
• Cray Inc. - Financial troubles
• Cray Inc. - Trivia
• Cray Inc. - Computers

Read more here: » Cray Inc.: Encyclopedia - Cray Inc.

In computer architecture, 64-bit is an adjective used to describe integers, memory addresses or other data units that are at most 64 bits (8 octets) wide, or to describe CPU and ALU architectures based on registers, address buses, or data buses of that size. As of 2004, 64-bit CPUs are common in servers, and have recently been introduced to the (previously 32-bit) mainstream personal computer arena in the form of the AMD64, EM64T, and P ...

Including:

• 64-bit - Architectural implications
• 64-bit - Memory limitations
• 64-bit - Timeline
• 64-bit - 32 vs 64 bit
• 64-bit - Pros and cons
• 64-bit - 64-bit data models
• 64-bit - Current 64-bit processor architectures
• 64-bit - Beyond 64 bits

Read more here: » 64-bit: Encyclopedia - 64-bit

Windows NT is a family of operating systems produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released in July 1993. The architecture complemented versions of Windows that were based on MS-DOS until 2001. Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 are the latest versions of Windows NT, though they are not branded as such for marketing purposes. Windows NT - Development. When development started in November 1988, Windows NT (using protected mode) was to be known as OS/2 3.0, the third version of the operating sy ...

Including:

• Windows NT - Development
• Windows NT - Releases
• Windows NT - Supported platforms
• Windows NT - NT designation
• Windows NT - Notes

Read more here: » Windows NT: Encyclopedia - Windows NT

Windows XP is a major revision of the Microsoft Windows operating system created for use on desktop and business computer systems. As of 2005, it is the latest general purpose version of Microsoft's family of operating systems, and is expected to be succeeded by Windows Vista sometime in late 2006. Codenamed "Whistler" during its development, it was released on October 25, 2001. The most common editions of the operating system are Windows XP Home Edition, which is targeted at home users, and Windows XP Professional, whic ...

Including:

• Windows XP - Editions
• Windows XP - Windows XP for specialized hardware
• Windows XP - Windows XP Starter Edition
• Windows XP - Windows XP Home and Professional Edition N
• Windows XP - New and updated features
• Windows XP - User interface
• Windows XP - Service packs
• Windows XP - Service Pack 1
• Windows XP - Service Pack 2
• Windows XP - Service Pack 3
• Windows XP - Common criticisms
• Windows XP - Security issues
• Windows XP - Product activation
• Windows XP - User interface and performance
• Windows XP - Integration of operating system features
• Windows XP - Copying restrictions
• Windows XP - Notes

Read more here: » Windows XP: Encyclopedia - Windows XP

The ARM architecture (originally the Acorn RISC Machine) is a 32-bit RISC processor architecture that is widely used in a number of applications. ARM variants are in widespread use in embedded and low-power applications due to their power saving design features. ARM architecture - History. The ARM design was started in 1983 as a development project at Acorn Computers Ltd. The team, led by Roger Wilson and Steve Furber, started development of what in some ways represents an advanced MOS Technol ...

Including:

• ARM architecture - History
• ARM architecture - The cores
• ARM architecture - Design notes
• ARM architecture - Thumb
• ARM architecture - Jazelle
• ARM architecture - Thumb-2
• ARM architecture - Thumb-2EE
• ARM architecture - NEON
• ARM architecture - VFP

Read more here: » ARM architecture: Encyclopedia - ARM architecture

VAX is a 32-bit computing architecture that supports an orthogonal instruction set (machine language) and virtual addressing (i.e. demand paged virtual memory). It was developed in the mid-1970s by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). DEC was later purchased by Compaq, which in turn was purchased by Hewlett-Packard. The VAX has been perceived as the quintessential CISC processing architecture, with its very large number of addressing modes and machine instructions, including instructions for such complex operations as queue ins ...

Including:

• VAX - The name
• VAX - Operating systems
• VAX - History
• VAX - VAX models

Read more here: » VAX: Encyclopedia - VAX

In computer architecture, a branch predictor is the part of a processor that determines whether a conditional branch in the instruction flow of a program is likely to be taken or not. This is called branch prediction. Branch predictors are crucial in today's modern, superscalar processors for achieving high performance. They allow processors to fetch and execute instructions without waiting for a branch to be resolved. Almost all pipelined processors do branch prediction of some form, because they must guess the address ...

Including:

• Branch predictor - Trivial prediction
• Branch predictor - Static prediction
• Branch predictor - Next line prediction
• Branch predictor - Bimodal branch prediction
• Branch predictor - Local branch prediction
• Branch predictor - Global branch prediction
• Branch predictor - Combined branch prediction
• Branch predictor - Agree prediction
• Branch predictor - Overriding branch prediction
• Branch predictor - History

Read more here: » Branch predictor: Encyclopedia - Branch predictor

BLISS is a system programming language developed at Carnegie Mellon University by W. A. Wulf, D. B. Russell, and A. N. Habermann around 1970. It was perhaps the best known systems programming language right up until C made its debut a few years later. Since then, C took off and BLISS faded into obscurity. (When C was in its infancy, a few projects within Bell Labs were debating the merits of BLISS vs. C.) BLISS is a typeless block-structured language based on expressions rather than statements, and includes constructs for exception handling, coroutines, and m ...

Including:

• BLISS - Versions
• BLISS - Downloads

Read more here: » BLISS: Encyclopedia - BLISS

Before Steve Wozniak co-founded Apple, he was an electronics hacker. By 1975, he was working at Hewlett-Packard and helping his friend Steve Jobs design video games for Atari. Wozniak had been buying computer time on a variety of minicomputers hosted by Call Computer, a time-sharing firm run by Alex Kamradt. The computer terminals available at that time were primarily paper-based; thermal printers like the Texas Instruments Silent 700 were state of the art. Wozniak had seen a 1975 issue of Popular Electronics magazine on how to build your ow ...

See also:

History of Apple Computer, History of Apple Computer - Pre-foundation, History of Apple Computer - Early years, History of Apple Computer - Apple III and Lisa, History of Apple Computer - The Macintosh, History of Apple Computer - 1984 to 1997, History of Apple Computer - 1998 to 2003, History of Apple Computer - 2003 to present, History of Apple Computer - The Future, History of Apple Computer - Apple and i Web services, History of Apple Computer - iPod and iTunes Music Store

Read more here: » History of Apple Computer: Encyclopedia II - History of Apple Computer - Pre-foundation

Command line interface (or CLI) OS's such as DOS, use only the keyboard for input. Modern OS's use a mouse for input with a graphical user interface (GUI) sometimes implemented as a shell over a CLI. The appropriate OS may depend on the hardware architecture, specifically the CPU, with only Linux and BSD running on almost any CPU. Since the early 1990's the choice for personal computers has been largely limited to the Microsoft Windows family and the Unix-like family, of which Linux is becoming the major representative. Mainframe computers a ...

See also:

Operating system, Operating system - Introduction, Operating system - System Calls, Operating system - Common core services, Operating system - Today's operating systems, Operating system - Unix-like systems, Operating system - Microsoft Windows, Operating system - Other operating systems, Operating system - General topics, Operating system - Other topics

Read more here: » Operating system: Encyclopedia II - Operating system - Today's operating systems

In 1981, a team led by John L. Hennessy at Stanford University started work on what would become the first MIPS processor. The basic concept was to dramatically increase performance through the use of deep instruction pipelines, a technique that was well known, but difficult to implement. Generally a pipeline spreads out the task of running an instruction into several steps, starting work on "step one" of an instruction before the preceding instruction is complete. In contrast, traditional designs of the era waited to complete an entire instruction before moving on, thereby leaving large ar ...

See also:

MIPS architecture, MIPS architecture - History, MIPS architecture - MIPS CPU family, MIPS architecture - Applications, MIPS architecture - Other models and future plans, MIPS architecture - MIPS cores, MIPS architecture - MIPS Programming and Emulation, MIPS architecture - Summary of R3000 instruction set, MIPS architecture - Memory to register transfer instructions, MIPS architecture - Register to memory transfer instructions, MIPS architecture - Register to register move instructions, MIPS architecture - Common arithmetic instructions, MIPS architecture - Common logic instructions bitwise, MIPS architecture - Common shift instructions, MIPS architecture - Branching and jump instructions, MIPS architecture - Some other important instructions

Read more here: » MIPS architecture: Encyclopedia II - MIPS architecture - History

Microprocessor - The first microprocessors. As with many advances in technology, the microprocessor was an idea whose time had come. Three projects arguably delivered a complete microprocessor at about the same time, Intel's 4004, Texas Instruments' TMS 1000, and Garrett AiResearch's Central Air Data Computer. In 1968, Garrett was invited to produce a digital computer to compete with electromechanical systems then under development for the main flight control computer in the US Navy's new F-14 Tomcat fight ...

See also:

Microprocessor, Microprocessor - History, Microprocessor - The first microprocessors, Microprocessor - Notable 8-bit designs, Microprocessor - 16-bit designs, Microprocessor - 32-bit designs, Microprocessor - 64-bit microchips on the desktop, Microprocessor - RISC, Microprocessor - Special-purpose microprocessors, Microprocessor - Design concepts, Microprocessor - Market statistics, Microprocessor - Common µPs; architectures, Microprocessor - Notes

Read more here: » Microprocessor: Encyclopedia II - Microprocessor - History

SCUMM - Version 1. Maniac Mansion (Commodore 64, NES, and original PC versions) Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders (Commodore 64 and original PC versions) SCUMM - Version 2. Maniac Mansion (Amiga and enhanced PC versions) Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders (Amiga, Atari ST ...

See also:

SCUMM, SCUMM - History, SCUMM - Design, SCUMM - Versions, SCUMM - Version 1, SCUMM - Version 2, SCUMM - Version 3, SCUMM - Version 4, SCUMM - Version 5, SCUMM - Version 6, SCUMM - Version 7, SCUMM - Version 8, SCUMM - Today

Read more here: » SCUMM: Encyclopedia II - SCUMM - Versions

MIPS Magnum - Processors. As mentioned, the MIPS Magnum 3000 includes a MIPS R3000A processor running at either 25 MHz or 33 MHz. The MIPS Magnum R4000 PC-50 includes a MIPS R4000PC processor with only 16 kB primary cache (but no secondary cache), running at an external clock rate of 50 MHz (which was internally doubled in the microprocessor to 100 MHz). The MIPS Magnum R4000 SC-50 is identical to the Magnum R4000PC, but includes one megabyte of secondary cache in addition to the primary cache. < ...

See also:

MIPS Magnum, MIPS Magnum - Series, MIPS Magnum - MIPS Magnum 3000, MIPS Magnum - MIPS Magnum R4000, MIPS Magnum - Components, MIPS Magnum - Processors, MIPS Magnum - Memory, MIPS Magnum - SCSI, MIPS Magnum - Ethernet, MIPS Magnum - Framebuffer, MIPS Magnum - Serial and Parallel I/O, MIPS Magnum - Floppy disk, MIPS Magnum - Historical development, MIPS Magnum - Operating Systems, MIPS Magnum - Windows NT, MIPS Magnum - RISC/os, MIPS Magnum - NetBSD and OpenBSD, MIPS Magnum - Linux, MIPS Magnum - Emulation

Read more here: » MIPS Magnum: Encyclopedia II - MIPS Magnum - Components

Front side bus - CPU. The frequency at which a processor (CPU) operates is determined by applying a clock multiplier to the front side bus (FSB) speed. For example, a processor running at 550 MHz might be using a 100 MHz FSB. This means there is an internal clock multiplier setting of 5.5; the CPU is set to run at 5.5 times frequency of the front side bus: 100 MHz x 5.5 = 550 MHz. By varying either the FSB or the multiplier, different CPU speeds can be achieved. In some cases, it is known that if you overclock the processor too high, that it can an ...

See also:

Front side bus, Front side bus - Current usage, Front side bus - Overclocking and related bus speeds, Front side bus - CPU, Front side bus - Memory, Front side bus - Some sample FSB frequencies and bandwidths, Front side bus - History

Read more here: » Front side bus: Encyclopedia II - Front side bus - Overclocking and related bus speeds