What is the difference between a Dec Alpha and a Mac Power PC chip?

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3 total messages Started by Anthony Mon, 09 Jun 1997 00:00

#5878

Author: Anthony
Date: Mon, 09 Jun 1997 00:00

16 lines
1103 bytes

Hi to all,

can some one please tell me what the difference is between an Dec Alpha
and a Mac Power PC chip is ? 

They are both RISC based processors right? 

Given stuff I have read about the Alpha one might conclude that if you
can run Windows NT on an Alpha Work station then you should be able to
do the same on a Mac Workstation right?

If so why all the need for this emulaion and 3rd party board crap to do
windows on the Mac ? 

Anthony

Re: What is the difference between a Dec Alpha and a Mac Power PC chip?

#5881

Author: Randy Park
Date: Mon, 09 Jun 1997 00:00

24 lines
1515 bytes

Anthony <Acanali@calumet.yorku.ca> wrote in article <5ngf0g$k1$1@sunburst.ccs.yorku.ca>...
> Hi to all,
> 
> can some one please tell me what the difference is between an Dec Alpha
> and a Mac Power PC chip is ? 
> 
> They are both RISC based processors right? 
> 
> Given stuff I have read about the Alpha one might conclude that if you
> can run Windows NT on an Alpha Work station then you should be able to
> do the same on a Mac Workstation right?
> 
> If so why all the need for this emulaion and 3rd party board crap to do
> windows on the Mac ? 
> 
> Anthony
> 

Your question is analogous to "Why can't the Spanish and French understand
each other?  After all they both speak 'Romantic' languages".

By the way, Windows-NT was available on a Power PC system until it was
recently pulled by both Microsoft and IBM.

Re: What is the difference between a Dec Alpha and a Mac Power PC chip?

#5882

Author: Terry Shannon
Date: Mon, 09 Jun 1997 00:00

35 lines
1712 bytes

Anthony wrote:
> 
> Hi to all,
> 
> can some one please tell me what the difference is between an Dec Alpha
> and a Mac Power PC chip is ?

Very different architectures and instruction sets, for one.

> 
> They are both RISC based processors right?

Yup. Just like gasoline and diesel engines both are internal combustion
engines.

> 
> Given stuff I have read about the Alpha one might conclude that if you
> can run Windows NT on an Alpha Work station then you should be able to
> do the same on a Mac Workstation right?
> 

Wrong.

> If so why all the need for this emulaion and 3rd party board crap to do
> windows on the Mac ?
> 

There's an Alpha version of the WNT OS. IBM has withdrawn support for
the PowerPC version of WNT. Gross oversimplification, but DEC uses
binary code translation software (FX!32) to enable Intel-specific
Windows NT apps to run on Alpha systems.

Terry Shannon
http://www.hrgresearch.com

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