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 DEC Alpha AXP 21-35023-13 (21064-AA, 150 MHz)
DEC Alpha AXP 21-35023-21 (21064, 190 MHz)
DEC Alpha AXP 21-35023-21 (21064, 200 MHz)
DEC Alpha AXP 21-35023-12 (21064, 200 MHz)
DEC Alpha AXP 21-40532-03 (21064-BB, 233 MHz)
DEC Alpha AXP 21-40532-04 (21064-DB, 275 MHz)
DEC Alpha AXP 21-40532-08 (21064-P1, 275 MHz)
DEC Alpha AXP 21-40532-06 (21064-EB, 300 MHz)
DEC Alpha AXP 21-40658-17 (21164-BA, 300 MHz)
DEC Alpha AXP 21-43918-45 (21164-P8, 533 MHz)
DEC Alpha AXP 211PC-03 (21164PC, 533 MHz)
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» DEC overview
» all Alpha AXP chips
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The DEC Alpha AXP Processor
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The DEC Alpha, also known as the Alpha AXP, is a 64-bit RISC microprocessor originally developed and fabricated by Digital Equipment Corp (DEC). Designed to power successors to the VAX line of computers, it was used in a variety of DEC workstations and servers, eventually forming the basis for almost all of their entire mid-to-upper-scale lineup. Several third-party vendors also produced Alpha systems, as well as PC compatible form factor motherboards.
Alpha supported both the VMS operating system, as well as Digital UNIX. Later open source operating systems also ran on the Alpha, notably Linux and BSD UNIX flavors. Microsoft supported the processor in Windows NT until NT 4.0 SP6 but did not extend Alpha support beyond release candidate 2 of Windows 2000.
The Alpha series was sold, along with DEC as a whole, to Compaq in 1998. Compaq, already an Intel customer, decided to phase out Alpha in favor of the forthcoming Intel Itanium architecture, and sold all Alpha intellectual property to Intel in 2001, effectively "killing" the product. Hewlett-Packard purchased Compaq later that same year, continuing development of the existing product line until 2004, and promising to continue selling Alpha-based systems, largely to the existing customer base, until 2006.
References:
Alpha at Wikipedia
DEC Documentation Library
DEC Documentation Archives
HP Alpha Systems
Alpha: The History in Facts and Comments
Brief Introduction to Alpha
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| Alpha EV4 and EV45 product codes |
| Order-Number
| Product
| MHz
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| 21064-AA |
21064 |
150 |
| 21064-CA |
21064 |
166 |
| 21064-BA |
21064 |
200 |
| 21064-BB |
21064 |
233 |
| 21064-DB |
21064 |
275 |
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| 21064-AB |
21064A |
200 |
| 21064-BB |
21064A |
233 |
| 21064-DB |
21064A |
275 |
| 21064-P1 |
21064A-PC (for NT) |
275 |
| 21064-EB |
21064A |
300 |
The first processors of the Alpha family were designated the DECchip 21064 series (the "21" signifying the 21st century, "0" corresponding to the processor generation and the "64" indicating 64 bits), also code-named EV4. Internally, Alpha processors were also identified by EV numbers, EV officially standing for "Extended VAX".
The first few generations of the Alpha chips were some of the most innovative CPUs of their time. The EV4 was the first CMOS microprocessor whose operating frequency rivalled higher-powered minicomputers and mainframes.
The EV4 core is a dual-issue (it can issue 2 instructions per CPU clock) superpipelined core with integer unit, floating point unit and branch prediction. It is fully bypassed and has 64-bit internal data paths and tightly coupled 8 KB caches, one each for Instruction and Data. The caches are write-through. |
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DEC Alpha AXP 21-35023-13 (21064-AA, 150 MHz) |
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DEC 228D H 9313
J40793-28
(C) (M) DEC 1991
DEC 21064-AA
21-35023-13
KE E+ |  |
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| Core Frequency: | 150 MHz | | Data bus (ext.): | 64 Bit | | Address bus: | 64 Bit | | Transistors: | 1,680,000 | | Circuit Size: | 0.75 µ | | Voltage: | 3.3 V | | Introduced: | February 1992 | | Manufactured: | week 13/1993 | | L1 Cache: | 8+8 KB | | L2 Cache: | ext. 512 KB | | CPU Code: | EV4 | | Package Type: | Ceramic
PGA-431 |
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DEC Alpha AXP 21-35023-21 (21064, 190 MHz) |
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DEC 290A H 9422
S11223-39
(C) (M) DEC 1991
21-35023-21
KB E+S |
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| Core Frequency: | 190 MHz | | Data bus (ext.): | 64 Bit | | Address bus: | 64 Bit | | Transistors: | 1,680,000 | | Circuit Size: | 0.75 µ | | Voltage: | 3.3 V | | Introduced: | 1992 | | Manufactured: | week 22/1994 | | L1 Cache: | 8+8 KB | | L2 Cache: | ext. 512 KB | | CPU Code: | EV4 | | Package Type: | Ceramic
PGA-431 |
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DEC Alpha AXP 21-35023-21 (21064, 200 MHz) |
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DEC 290A H 9451
S12098-13
(C) (M) DEC 1991
21-35023-21
KB E+S |  |
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| Core Frequency: | 200 MHz | | Data bus (ext.): | 64 Bit | | Address bus: | 64 Bit | | Transistors: | 1,680,000 | | Circuit Size: | 0.75 µ | | Voltage: | 3.3 V | | Introduced: | 1992 | | Manufactured: | week 51/1994 | | L1 Cache: | 8+8 KB | | L2 Cache: | ext. 512 KB | | CPU Code: | EV4 | | Package Type: | Ceramic
PGA-431 |
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DEC Alpha AXP 21-35023-12 (21064, 200 MHz) |
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DEC 228D 9313
S43599-27
(C) (M) DEC 1991
21-35023-21
KE E+ |  |
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| Core Frequency: | 200 MHz | | Data bus (ext.): | 64 Bit | | Address bus: | 64 Bit | | Transistors: | 1,680,000 | | Circuit Size: | 0.50 µ | | Voltage: | 3.3 V | | Introduced: | 1992 | | Manufactured: | week 13/1993 | | L1 Cache: | 8+8 KB | | L2 Cache: | ext. 512 KB | | CPU Code: | EV4 | | Package Type: | Ceramic
PGA-431 |
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| The EV45 core has a couple of tweaks to the EV4 core: it has a slightly improved floating point unit, and 16 KB caches, one each for Instruction and Data (it also has cache parity). |
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DEC Alpha AXP 21-40532-03 (21064-BB, 233 MHz) |
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DEC 284J H 9448
B50264-08
(C) (M) DEC 1993
21064-BB A233
21-40532-03
KA E45 |  |
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| Core Frequency: | 233 MHz | | Data bus (ext.): | 64 Bit | | Address bus: | 64 Bit | | Transistors: | 2,850,000 | | Circuit Size: | 0.50 µ | | Voltage: | 3.3 V | | Introduced: | 1993 | | Manufactured: | week 48/1994 | | L1 Cache: | 16+16 KB | | L2 Cache: | 8 MB ext. | | CPU Code: | EV45 | | Package Type: | Ceramic
PGA-431 |
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DEC Alpha AXP 21-40532-04 (21064-DB, 275 MHz) |
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DEC 284J H 9519
B50461-20
(C) (M) DEC 1993
21-40532-04
KKB E45L |  |
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| Core Frequency: | 275 MHz | | Data bus (ext.): | 64 Bit | | Address bus: | 64 Bit | | Transistors: | 2,850,000 | | Circuit Size: | 0.50 µ | | Voltage: | 3.3 V | | Introduced: | 1993 | | Manufactured: | week 19/1995 | | L1 Cache: | 16+16 KB | | L2 Cache: | 8 MB ext. | | CPU Code: | EV45 | | Package Type: | Ceramic
PGA-431 |
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DEC Alpha AXP 21-40532-08 (21064-P1, 275 MHz) |
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DEC 284J H 9546
B51132-45
(C) (M) DEC 1993
21064-P1 PC275
21-40532-08
KKB E45L |
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| Core Frequency: | 275 MHz | | Data bus (ext.): | 64 Bit | | Address bus: | 64 Bit | | Transistors: | 2,850,000 | | Circuit Size: | 0.50 µ | | Voltage: | 3.3 V | | Introduced: | 1993 | | Manufactured: | week 46/1995 | | L1 Cache: | 16+16 KB | | L2 Cache: | 8 MB ext. | | CPU Code: | EV45 | | Package Type: | Ceramic
PGA-431 |
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DEC Alpha AXP 21-40532-06 (21064-EB, 300 MHz) |
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DEC 284L H 9601
B51218-49
(C) (M) DEC 1993
21064-EB A300
21-40532-06
KKB E45L |  |
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| Core Frequency: | 300 MHz | | Data bus (ext.): | 64 Bit | | Address bus: | 64 Bit | | Transistors: | 2,850,000 | | Circuit Size: | 0.50 µ | | Voltage: | 3.3 V | | Introduced: | 1993 | | Manufactured: | week 01/1996 | | L1 Cache: | 16+16 KB | | L2 Cache: | 8 MB ext. | | CPU Code: | EV45 | | Package Type: | Ceramic
PGA-431 |
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| Alpha EV5, EV56 and PCA56 product codes |
| Order-Number
| Product
| MHz
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| 21164-266 |
21164 |
266 |
| 21164-P1 |
21164 (for NT) |
266 |
| 21164-300 |
21164 |
300 |
| 21164-BA |
21164 |
300 |
| 21164-P8 |
21164 (for NT) |
300 |
| 21164-333 |
21164 |
333 |
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| 21164-JC |
21164A |
500 |
| 21164-KC |
21164A |
533 |
| 21164-P8 |
21164A (for NT) |
533 |
| 21164-MC |
21164A |
600 |
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| 211PC-01 |
21164PC |
400 |
| 211PC-02 |
21164PC |
466 |
| 211PC-03 |
21164PC |
533 |
The Alpha 21164 or EV5 became available in 1995 at processor frequencies of up to 333 MHz. In July 1996 the line was speed bumped to 500 MHz, in March 1998 to 600 MHz. DEC unveiled the first information about the 2nd generation Alpha processor at the Hot Chips conference in Palo Alto on August 14th 1994. The official release of the 21164 (EV5) was on September 7th 1994. The processor was based on the core of the EV45 and was more an evolution than a revolutionary new design.
The EV5 core is a quad-issue core. It also has a tightly-coupled 96 KB on-chip second-level cache (the SCache) which is 3-way set associative and write-back (in contrast to the L1 caches). The EV4 to EV5 performance increase is better than just the increase achieved by clock speed improvements. As well as the bigger caches and quad issue, there are microarchitectural improvements to reduce producer/consumer latencies in some paths. |
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DEC Alpha AXP 21-40658-17 (21164-BA, 300 MHz) |
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(C)(M) DEC 1994 275K H
B52874-02 9637
21164-BA 300
21-40658-17
KKC E5 |  |
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| Donated by Dennis Grevenstein. Thanks a lot! |
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| Core Frequency: | 300 MHz | | Data bus (ext.): | 64 Bit | | Address bus: | 64 Bit | | Transistors: | 9,700,000 | | Circuit Size: | 0.50 µ | | Core / I/O Voltage: | 2.5 / 3.3 V | | Introduced: | September 1994 | | Manufactured: | week 37/1996 | | L1 Cache: | 8+8 KB | | L2 Cache: | 96 KB | | CPU Code: | EV5 | | Package Type: | Ceramic
PGA-499 |
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| The 21164A (EV56) was introduced at Microprocessor Forum in October 1995. It was a modified version of the EV5, after a technology shrink to a 4-layer 0.35µ CMOS6, manufactured at the same factory in Hudson (DEC had invested about 450 Mio. US$ into modernisation). The EV56 core is fundamentally the same microarchitecture as the EV5. The most important architectural difference was BWX (Byte-Word Extension) - a set of 6 additional instructions to load/store data in 8 or 16 bit parts. These are primarily intended for use by device drivers. |
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DEC Alpha AXP 21-43918-45 (21164-P8, 533 MHz) |
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DEC 1026J H 9714
JD0930
(C) (M) DEC 1995
21164-P8 533
21-43918-45
KKB E56 |  |
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| Core Frequency: | 533 MHz | | Data bus (ext.): | 64 Bit | | Address bus: | 64 Bit | | Transistors: | 9,300,000 | | Circuit Size: | 0.35 µ | | Core / I/O Voltage: | 2.0 / 3.3 V | | Introduced: | 1995 | | Manufactured: | week 14/1997 | | L1 Cache: | 8+8 KB | | L2 Cache: | 96 KB | | CPU Code: | EV56 | | Package Type: | Ceramic
PGA-499 |
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References: Design of the DEC 3000