WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF ALPHA -- A NEW FUTURE BEGINS Digital is introducing the Alpha (Digital's internal code name) architecture, the world's fastest microprocessor, and new open business practices for licensing and selling Alpha technology. Digital has a clear vision for the future of computing and a consistent product strategy based on leadership in open systems. Digital products are your best investment in a secure future. What is Alpha? Alpha is a totally new, open computer architecture that positions Digital as an industry leader for the rest of the decade and into the next century. Alpha goes well beyond current computing environments to cover multiple operating systems, desktops, supercomputers, embedded realtime, LAN products, and more. This announcement includes these key items: o Digital has developed the Alpha architecture specifically to be fast, scalable, open, widely useful, and enduring. o Digital's first Alpha product is the world's first 64-bit, super- pipelined, superscalar RISC microprocessor. This microprocessor is the industry's fastest, supports the largest address space, and has the widest data pipeline. o In line with Digital's commitment to open business practices and open systems, Digital will license the Alpha architecture and sell Alpha technology at all levels of integration, making it widely available in the industry. Thus Alpha technology will be available in implementations ranging from embedded products to the world's most powerful supercomputers. Digital welcomes Kubota Corporation and Cray Research as its first system partners developing and selling Alpha systems to complement Digital's system products. More information on these partnerships and products will be made available in the coming months. o By the end of 1992, Digital will offer you Alpha systems from the desktop to the datacenter, and these systems will be supported initially by both the VMS and OSF/1 operating systems. These operating systems will be available to other vendors selling Alpha systems. Alpha systems complement and supplement today's products. They will coexist with current and new generations of VAX systems and MIPS-based DECstation systems, which will be introduced for years to come. Today's VAX and DECstation products mean leadership in their own right, and now, with Alpha coming, they also have the best future built in. Alpha is an exciting new direction for Digital. The long-term objective is to make Alpha the de facto industry standard for 64-bit computing. You will be able to buy and use Digital's current products with the knowledge that you can move to Alpha as your needs require. Please contact your local Digital sales office for more information. __________ OSF/1 is a registered trademark of the Open Software Foundation, Inc. ALPHA: DELIVERING THE OPEN ADVANTAGE HIGHLIGHTS o Alpha means leadership, translating into low-cost solutions for your business needs o Alpha provides an open-ended growth opportunity for your present computer installations o Alpha delivers the Open Advantage, the standard of comparison for open computing The Alpha program positions Digital at the forefront of the computer industry through the rest of the decade and into the 21st century. Today, Digital is introducing entirely new business practices and a new technology base (Alpha). Alpha is the ultimate proof point of Digital's claim to the Open Advantage. The real excitement of Alpha is the software technology Digital is delivering. This will enable you to move smoothly to integrate the new leadership RISC hardware and leapfrog the competition in performance, while protecting your investments in software, applications, data, and business information. This level of compatibility is unprecedented in any introduction of RISC technology. ALPHA MEANS LEADERSHIP Alpha differentiates Digital from every other vendor. Future leaders of the computer industry will need five core competencies to keep their competitive edge. Digital has them now: o Computer architecture and systems design o Microprocessor design and fabrication o Software: operating systems, compilers, and "middleware" o Financial staying power o Worldwide service and support Alpha's features make it more advanced than existing computer architectures: o Fast 64-bit RISC on a single chip o Unbiased toward any operating system or language o Upward scalable by 1000 times over the initial performance o Single processor to massively parallel processors o Designed to be openly licensed and sold These architectural features translate into low-cost, high-performance, low-risk, and more enduring solutions for you. Alpha with the VMS, OSF/1, and other operating systems opens new opportunities: o "Right sizing" the mainframe o Technical hot-box applications o New high-performance, personal-use applications o Embedded applications through OEMs o New services for end users and partners ALPHA PROVIDES A GROWTH PATH Alpha systems will provide a high-end growth path for all the Digital products you are using today. The unprecedented level of software compatibility means that current ULTRIX and VMS applications have an assured future running on the highest performance, open systems platforms. And you can build the innovative applications of tomorrow on today's products and be assured of smooth deployment on Alpha systems. Digital's open business practices, combined with leadership Alpha technology and service, provide a compelling vision of Digital's ability to support your growing business needs. Your investments in Digital's products and long-term strategy will be secure. ALPHA DELIVERS THE OPEN ADVANTAGE Digital's Open Advantage promises you the freedom to choose and the power to use the best applications available while optimizing your current and future investments. Alpha was designed to deliver on this promise. Alhha Open Technology o A totally new, open, 64-bit RISC computing architecture o A single-chip implementation of the archture -- the world's fastest microprocessor o A family of systems and software spanning the desktop to the datacenter using the OSF/1 and VMS operating systems Alpha is a new computing architecture, designed from the outset to be open and fast. Unlike other RISC architectures, Alpha is not biased toward any operating system or language. This means Alpha systems can be equally good at supporting OSF/1, VMS, and other operating s stems. This is an important and unique feature of Alpha -- the choice of operating environment. For example, if you currently the VMS operating system on VAX systems, you can introduce leading performance Alpha systems that not only coexist but run the same operating environment. This gives you a wider choice in how to use Alpha technology to best solve your business problems. The Alpha chip is the world's fastest microprocessor -- and this is just the first Digital implementation. Digital has achieved a sustainable improvement in microprocessor performance through the inherent nature of the Alpha architecture, including the use of multiple instruction issue, superpipelining, unique compilers, and Digital's leadership CMOS design and fabrication capability. Alpha is also designed to be open to partners -- easy to build into systems and embedded applications that you can use. Alpha Open Business Practices o New forms of partner ng with semiconductor companies, computer system houses, and embedded application vendors o Alpha technology available at levels of integration -- chips, boards, and systems o A balanced approach to operating system support o A portfolio of applications o Licensing of Digital software for use by partners who build and sell Alpha systems In an unprecedented open approach, Digital will license the Alpha architecture to one or more semiconductor companies. These architectural partners will help Alpha chips become widely available in products you will want to acquire. Digital is partnering with system houses -- other computer companies -- who want to build systems using the Alpha architecture. Alpha was designed from the beginning to be open, with the ability to run any operating system. At the outset, Digital will provide balanced support for the OSF/1 and VMS operating systems. Other operating systems will be added to address new user needs. Over time, Alpha will have the broadest and deepest portfolio of applications ever available on a Digital platform. The company is under- taking an unprecedented support program to help third-party vendors move their applications to Alpha. Consistent with the architectural licensing and sale of chips and boards, Digital will license its operating systems, compilers, and layered products on Digital and non-Digital Alpha systems. This is confirmation of Digital's commitment as an open software vendor. Alpha Open Services o End User Services and Vendor Services to support Alpha o Application Migration Centers to help with planning and transition Digital Services will support Alpha with two major categories of service -- End User Services for new and existing Digital users and Vendor Services for vendors who use the Alpha technology in their products. End User Services will focus on three main areas: Consulting Services, Migration Services, and Educational and Training Services. These services are designed to assist end users in the successful planning, design, implementation, and management of a new Alpha environment. Vendor Services will be offered to vendors who buy Alpha chips and incorporate them in their own products. New Application Migration Centers will help you plan for an orderly transition from your current environment to a new, Alpha-based environment. The article in this issue entitled "Digital Services Programs for Alpha" provides detail on all these services. Please contact your local Digital sales office for more information. __________ OSF/1 is a registered trademark of the Open Software Foundation, Inc. MEETING YOUR NEEDS WITH ALPHA HIGHLIGHTS o There will be a phased implementation of Alpha in Digital hardware, software, and services o Alpha will coexist with current VAX system and DECstation products o Alpha will meet your needs across the range of Digital's offerings, including systems, embedded hardware, software, services, and applications PHASED IMPLEMENTATION Digital's initial family of systems, a number of products ranging from the desktop to the datacenter, will be available in late 1992. These products will be delivered with a choice of the OSF/1 or VMS operating system from Digital. ALPHA COMPLEMENTS CURRENT PRODUCTS Alpha complements and extends Digital's VAX and DECstation products. Alpha is not a replacement for today's products -- Alpha systems will coexist with them. The current product families represent leadership in the industry. They will be enhanced, sold, and supported for years to come. Alpha systems can be added in the future to an existing DECsystem OSF/1 or VAX VMS environment. This is possible because Alpha will be software compatible with today's products, including full support of NAS software and packages on toth the VMS and OSF/1 operating systems on Alpha. You can buy current products confidently and invest in OSF/1 and VMS applicat knowing that Alpha systems can be introduced in the future into those environments without disruption. EMBEDDED HARDWARE Digital's open business practices include the licensing and sale of Alpha technology at all levels of integration, including chips, single-board computers, and systems. This provides new opportunities for users who build computers or components into their own products in a wide range of industries, including office equipment, telecommunications, process control, energy management, medical imaging, military electronics, automated test equipment, and many others. SERVICES Both direct end users and third-party vendors who incorporate Alpha -- from chips through computer systems -- into their products will benefit from the relevant Digital services available. These products can be computer or noncomputer products. Users could include independent software vendors integrating Alpha computer products, vendors withesoftware applications running on Alpha systeand end user enterprises planning for Alpha technology in the near and long term. APPLICATIONS Alpha systems will be used for applications that are currently in use, as well as in the next generation of high-impact applications that are beginning to emerge. New High-Impact Applications The high performance of RISC microprocessors, the high I/O bandwidth provided by new system buses, and new distributed computing technologies are converging to facilitate development of the next generation of user interfaces and applications. These will offer high-impact benefits and competitive advantages for Digital users. Examples include: o Advanced user interfaces using voice I/O, video, multimedia, etc. o Application visualization systems for technical and business applications o Virtual reality, for both entertainment and training applications o Biological system simulation and modeling for development of pharmaceuticals o Econometric forecasting o Extremely large database search and retrieval Digital believes that because of performance and openness, Alpha will become the platform of choice for development and deployment of these leading-edge applications. Existing Supercomputer and Other Applications The increased performance of Alpha systems will provide an opportunity to make high-performance technical computing applications available to more users than was previously possible. Applications that typically ran on supercomputers or large mainframes can be run very cost effectively on Alpha systems; examples include: o Seismic data analysis o Computational chemistry o Signal processing o Computational physics o Econometric forecasting o Molecular modeling o Weather forecasting o Nonlinear finite element analysis o Materials engineering Other applications do not require supercomputer performance, but their widespread implementation has been impeded by the cost of hardware required to run them effectively. The price/performance of Alpha systems will make these applications more widely affordable; examples include: o Finite scheduling and simulation of manufacturing operations o Complex distribution and logistics optimization Please contact your local Digital sales office for more information. __________ OSF/1 is a registered trademark of the Open Software Foundation, Inc. ALPHA MAKES VAX VMS INVESTMENTS MORE VALUABLE HIGHLIGHTS o VAX VMS systems -- the best business critical solutions today now have the best future built in INTRODUCTION If you are considering implementing new information technology, you are quite possibly looking closely at the new Alpha technology and architecture. You also want to make sure that the investments you make today will solve today's business problems without compromising the ability to use tomorrow's new breakthrough performance. On October 30, 1991, Digital announced VAX systems that allowed you to implement business solutions without compromise. VMS software had established a well recognized leadership position for functionality, but with price/performance being the best in the industry (TPC-A data) and with open multivendor computing through POSIX, Motif, and the rest of NAS, VMS software became the clear choice for computing. You could have it all: functionality, price/performance, and open systems, without compromise. With Alpha running VMS software, you have an additional opportunity for the future: You can deploy on leadership VAX VMS systems now with the assurance that your environment will be leadership for decades to come. VMS INTO THE FUTURE Alpha provides the computing platform that ensures VMS software will be the leader in business critical, "no compromise" computing for decades to come. VMS software running on Alpha marries the most advanced computing architecture (Alpha) with a software environment that has the data integrity and capacily to handle large business critical solutions. This environment is unrivaled in terms of availability features, openness, and lost. VMS software on the Alpha platform has the potential to provide the necessary performance and functionality for business critical solutions that in the past required mainframes or could not be done on any computer. VMS software for Alpha will also enable the creation of new business critical solutions. Consider the advantages you will have in downsizing to a radically lower cost solution without giving up performance or losing functionality! VMS software for Alpha will allow these business critical applications to harness the power-hungry technologies of the '90s: multimedia, imaging, object oriented, artificial intelligence, global networks, and multivendor computing. VMS IS STILL VMS New and different, Alpha opens up whole new worlds. But from a software perspective, it is the same as your VAX syhtems -- it runs VMS software. All of thfferent hardware platforms will work together because they all run VMS software: yesterday's VAX systems, today's VAX systems, and tomorrow's Alpha and VAX systems. All will coexist in the same network, running the same applications, with the same user interface, using the same data, sharing the same peripherals, used by the same trained VMS knowledgeable people. Eventually, all will work together in the same cluster configuration. Thus, nearly all of your investment moves smoothly forward to Alpha. The upcoming availability of Alpha actually enhances the value of VAX VMS computing solutions today. VMS software for Alpha will easily accelerate today's VAX VMS solutions to much higher performance levels. This potential makes these solutions more valuable, going beyond mere investment protection to investment enhancement. You should also know that new, exciting VAX systems are coming in the future. New VAX systems will be introduced for many years to come, offering higher systems performance, reliability, and flexibility. VMS LEADERSHIP TODAY The VMS leadership story delivered with the new VAX systems on October 30, 1991, was clear and straightforward: "no compromise" computing for business critical solutions, with best functionality, best open multivendor computing, best performance, and best price/performance. Functionality is of paramount importance for most business critical solutions. VMS software offers exceptional data protection, thanks to leadership dependability -- data integrity, availability, and security. VMS software offers outstanding flexibility to scale solutions up from local to global, based on the scalability of Digital's systems, I/O, networks, and CASE tools. Digital supports VMS functionality with its capabilities as one of the world's top three systems integrators, with over 40,000 service professionals. Open multivendor computing has become an integral part of VMS software, which has gracefully made the transition from proprietary to open without compromising functionality or performance. Support for POSIX, Motif, and standards-based NAS makes the VMS operating system the premier open system. The best performance and price/performance were easy to prove with the audited TPC-A benchmarks published at announcement on October 30. These benchmarks showed that the new VAX 4000 and VAX 6000 products were the world leaders in their class. (For more information on these benchmarks, please refer to the Special Issue, dated October 30, 1991, of Digital's Customer Update.) BUSINESS CRITICAL COMPUTING LEADERSHIP TOMORROW New business critical solutions and solutions re-engineered from their mainframe versions are now financially viable for migration consideration -- possibly for the first time for many sites. Digital products and services will focus on this emerging new environment. You can begin to develop and migrate today on VAX VMS systems, and when appropriate, deploy on Alpha systems running VMS software. Please contact your local Digital sales office for more information. __________ Motif is a registered trademark of the Open Software Foundation, Inc. USING UNIX TODAY AND TOMORROW HIGHLIGHTS o MIPS ULTRIX -- best RISC entry price and upgradability in the industry; over 3000 ULTRIX applications available today; Digital has ACE-compatible products today and future products under development o DEC OSF/1 software for MIPS -- developers' platform for OSF/1 on MIPS and/or Alpha; first OSF/1 offering in the industry from a major vendor o DEC OSF/1 software will unite Digital's UNIX offerings, supporting MIPS and Alpha and providing unequaled investment protection with coexistence, compatibility, and migration opportunities o Digital will have the industry's highest-performance UNIX platforms with DEC OSF/1 software on Alpha INTRODUCTION If you are considering implementing new information technology, you are quite possibly very impressed with the new Alpha technology and architecture. You also want to make sure that the investments you make today will solve today's business problems without compromising the ability to use tomorrow's new breakthrough performance. ULTRIX AND MIPS FOR TODAY'S APPLICATIONS Digital is developing a series of MIPS R4000 daughter card upgrades, thereby assuring MIPS users of long-term investment protection for their DECstation and DECsystem purchases today. And with plans for MIPS multiprocessors in the future, users will continue to have binary compatibility with MIPS from desktop to datacenter. Existing ULTRIX applications will also be highly portable to any future DEC OSF/1 system. You can indeed buy systems today knowing the future performance you need is built in. DEC OSF/1 FOR NEW APPLICATIONS Digital has announced the availability of the first commercial version of OSF/1 from a major vendor, on DECstation and DECsystem platforms (MIPS). Independent software vendors have announced support for over 100 applications on the DEC OSF/1 platform. DEC OSF/1 software provides a standards-compliant operating environment that meets the needs of virtually all UNIX users. Most ULTRIX MIPS applications can be moved in binary form to the DEC OSF/1 for MIPS environment and run unmodified. If a new application is being created, DEC OSF/1 V1.0 software for MIPS is the appropriate development vehicle, whether you want to run the application on a MIPS and/or Alpha system. DEC OSF/1 software will continue to be available when Alpha systems start shipping. Because Alpha will have the same OSF/1 implementation as MIPS, you can just recompile and run the MIPS application on OSF/1 for Alpha. You can buy inexpensive DECstation systems now to develop applications for use on Alpha. DEC OSF/1 -- DIGITAL'S UNIX OPERATING SYSTEM Digital's UNIX philosophy is based on a single OSF/1 implementation across multiple architectures, including Intel, MIPS, and Alpha systems. Because Digital will have one UNIX operating system (DEC OSF/1), it will be a simple step to move applications from MIPS to Alpha by means of a simple recompile and relink. Thus application portability and compatibility are assured, with both MIPS and Alpha systems running DEC OSF/1 software able to work together seamlessly in the same computing environment. For Intel platforms, the same OSF/1 technology will be available in the future as part of the ACE Initiative through Digital's partner, Santa Cruz Operations, Inc. DEC OSF/1 software consolidates the major UNIX technology streams: BSD (ULTRIX), System V, and OSF. The OSF/1 technology was developed by the Open Software Foundation on Digital's DECstation products. Digital then built into DEC OSF/1 software a high degree of ULTRIX binary compatibility. As a result, you will benefit both in application portability and in protection of your existing systems and applications investments, regardless of underlying hardware. HIGHEST-PERFORMANCE UNIX PLATFORMS WITH DEC OSF/1 ON ALPHA With Alpha technology, Digital can deliver the industry's highest-performance UNIX platforms. Digital will continue its OSF leadership by introducing the first 64-bit operating system in the industry (see the accompanying article entitled "DEC OSF/1 for Alpha"). Please contact your local Digital sales office for more information. __________ OSF/1 is a registered trademark of the Open Software Foundation, Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark of UNIX System Laboratories, Inc. Intel is a trademark of Intel Corporation. INDUSTRY LEADERSHIP INVESTMENT PROTECTION CONTINUES HIGHLIGHTS o Today's VAX and MIPS systems will work in a complementary way with tomorrow's VAX and Alpha systems running VMS software and tomorrow's MIPS and Alpha systems running OSF software INVESTMENT PROTECTION PROGRAM Seamless integration with other Digital platforms has been a design goal of the Alpha program since its inception. Proof of the Alpha design success can be found in: o Data Compatibility: The VMS operating system on VAX and Alpha systems will provide the same data formats, on-disk structures, file systems, record management systems, and database systems. As a result, disks and tapes can be moved back and forth between VAX and Alpha systems. Also, VAX and Alpha systems will be able to share data on a common disk in a VAXcluster configuration. Because MIPS and Alpha systems running OSF provide the same data types, file systems, and database systems, disks and tapes can be moved back and forth. And, of course, data can be moved back and forth between systems via standard networking facilities. This is a first in the industry; no other vendor has ever provided complete data protection with the introduction of RISC technology. o Source Code Compatibility: The VMS operating system on VAX and Alpha systems will provide the same system services, runtime libraries (RTLs), and POSIX interfaces. Thus, most VAX VMS programs (all nonprivileged programs) will run on Alpha systems running VMS software, after a simple recompile and relink. The same is true for OSF on MIPS and Alpha; the same set of Application Programmer Interfaces (APIs) will be supported. Almost all MIPS OSF programs will run on Alpha systems running OSF software, after a recompile and relink. Digital offers industry leadership software investment protection. o Image Compatibility: Digital will provide a tool that allows most MIPS OSF images to run on Alpha systems running OSF software, with Alpha performance comparable to the then-current, high-performance MIPS systems. Likewise, Digital will provide a tool that will allow most nonprivileged VAX VMS images to run on Alpha systems running VMS software, with performance comparable to that of then-current, high-performance VAX systems. o Applications Compatibility: Perhaps you depend heavily on one or more third-party applications. Digital has been working for many months with key application providers to ensure that users' applications will be ready for the move to Alpha at the appropriate time. o Common User Interfaces: Thanks to the way Alpha has been designed you will find only one significant difference between the OSF operating system on MIPS and Alpha systems, and between the VMS operating system on VAX and Alpha systems: the performance of the Alpha systems will be much higher. Common shells will be provided on MIPS and Alpha systems running OSF software; DCL will be provided on VAX and Alpha systems running VMS software. All systems will provide DECwindows and Motif software. No retraining will be necessary, thereby increasing your productivity and keeping costs down. o Common NAS Middleware: Digital's leadership standards-based NAS software will run on both VMS and OSF/1 software on Alpha. This not only provides a common set of interfaces to simplify applications portability across Alpha and VAX systems, but also provides data and application integration across all existing and future NAS platforms. o Common Peripherals: Alpha systems will support the TURBOchannel, XMI, SCSI, DSSI, and Futurebus+ buses. VAX or MIPS peripherals that use those buses can be moved to Alpha systems when the time is right for you. Frequently, these peripherals are 50 percent or more of your systems cost, so this feature is a major investment protection benefit. Please contact your local Digital sales office for more information. __________ Motif, OSF/1, and OSF are registered trademarks of the Open Software Foundation, Inc. ALPHA -- DIGITAL'S LEADERSHIP RISC ARCHITECTURE HIGHLIGHTS o Alpha is a new RISC architecture that is the first to provide features that users are seeking today -- features that will pervade industry use for generations to come; in short, Alpha is the first 21st century computer architecture, offering: - Leadership performance today and continuing tomorrow -- with a performance increase of at least 1000 times designed into the Alpha architecture - Open performance architecture -- designed for widespread use throughout the industry for many environments at all levels of integration, from embedded to supercomputer - Longevity -- Alpha's usefulness extends beyond most other computing architectures selling today and it is the first to offer a binary-compatible growth path into the 21st century LEADERSHIP PERFORMANCE FOR TODAY AND TOMORROW Alpha was specifically designed for high-speed, scalable implementations. Many RISC design elements that could compromise performance (and do compromise the performance of other RISC processors) were examined and new, high-performance alternatives were developed for the Alpha architecture. The Alpha RISC architecture is the best for optimizing performance along all three major dimensions: o Clock speed -- The simplicity of the design and Digital's outstanding CMOS processor design and fabrication capability have made it possible to deliver the fastest RISC microprocessor in the industry -- up to 200 MHz, about two times the speed of the leading competitor. o Multiple instruction issue -- Starting more instructions every clock cycle improves performance (a lower number of cycles per instruction) without the need for faster silicon. Alpha begins with a dual-issue implementation (two instructions per cycle) and will expand this capability beyond two. o Multiple processors -- The Alpha architecture is the only leading RISC architecture that has been designed from the outset to encourage high-performance multiprocessor (and even massively parallel) implementations. Alpha-based systems will have a significant advantage over other RISC processors in multiprocessor implementations. The combination of these three factors will allow Alpha systems to achieve a performance increase of at least 1000 times over the life of the architecture. You can benefit from Alpha's continuing performance leadership, because it can be translated either into new, leading applications using the Alpha performance to your competitive advantage, or into maximum efficiency in deploying your computing resources (using small, powerful Alpha systems for functions formerly requiring much more expensive installations). For more details on the Alpha architecture see the "Alpha Architecture Technical Summary" article in this issue. DESIGNED FOR OPEN SYSTEMS The Alpha architecture is the first leading performance architecture to meet the criteria for truly open industry use. This is based on two primary factors: o No bias towards a given operating system or programming language -- Initially Alpha systems will be able to run OSF/1 (UNIX) and VMS operating systems. Not only is there no bias in the architecture towards a particular operating system or programming language (such as UNIX or C), but specific architectural features allow Alpha to be adapted to different operating systems (see the PALcall instructions section in the "Alpha Architecture Technical Summary" article). o Single-chip implementation -- Having a single chip implementation opens the door to leading embedded applications and compact systems (laptops, palmtops), as well as allowing the broadest possible range of systems families (mainframes, supercomputers, and massively parallel systems at the high end). The Alpha architecture is expected to be widely adopted in the industry. This means that you will find compatible and complementary systems and products from other vendors to amplify your application investments. It also means that Alpha systems will retain not only performance leadership, but price/performance leadership, as multiple vendors bring Alpha-based systems to market. THE FIRST 21ST CENTURY COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE The Alpha architecture was designed for a 25-year design horizon. Digital understands that you want to invest in complex applications technology knowing that you will not have to change it five or even ten years later. Alpha meets this need with a full 64-bit architecture. Leading applications today (large system logic simulations and verifications, for example) are already too large for 32-bit addressing limits. Many new applications on the horizon will require a large address space (multimedia, image processing). Over the course of the next few years many of the industry's leading applications will move over the 32-bit limit. All of the current 32-bit RISC architectures will be obsolete for these applications. Alpha users, by contrast, could invest in this architecture from the beginning and run applications developed today on leading Alpha systems throughout the entire Alpha life -- the same way today's VAX applications can be run on the original VAX-11/780 systems. Because 64-bit addressing allows for applications 4 billion times larger than those allowed by 32-bit addressing, this binary compatibility should have a very long life indeed -- easily as long as the 25-year architectural design horizon. In summary, the combination of leading qualities -- o Performance o Openness and adaptability o Longevity and compatibility -- makes Alpha the first 21st century computing architecture. Please contact your local Digital sales office for more information. __________ OSF/1 is a registered trademark of the Open Software Foundation, Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark of UNIX System Laboratories, Inc. CMOS-4 CHIP MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY HIGHLIGHTS o Digital is a leading producer of high speed CMOS microprocessors o Volume manufacturing of Alpha 21064-AA chips has begun in the U.S. and will begin in Europe in May 1992 o Alpha chip technology offers: - A minimum feature size of 0.75 micron - A transistor channel length of 0.5 micron - 3.3 V chip operation - Unique features for very high microprocessor chip speed TECHNOLOGY DESCRIPTION CMOS-4 is the fourth generation of complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) chip manufacturing technology developed by Digital's Semiconductor Operations in Hudson, Massachusetts. Each generation of CMOS technology is used to manufacture a wide range of advanced chips used in computing hardware products. The focus of Digital's CMOS technology that sets it apart from merchant semiconductor manufacturers or vertically integrated systems competitors is that it is tuned to very- high-speed complex logic functions with high-speed, on-chip memory. World-leading microprocessor requirements matched with chip reliability needs are used to pace and measure the manufacturing process development and implementation. Previous CMOS generations have delivered the world's fastest CISC microprocessors in Digital's products. For example, in 1990 CMOS-3 delivered a 62.5 MHz chip in the VAX 6000 Model 500 series. CMOS-4 has delivered an 83 MHz chip in the VAX 6000 Model 600 series. Digital is now using this same technology to manufacture the Alpha CPU and a wide range of peripheral chips. CMOS-4 is at the leading edge of manufacturing processes in a number of ways. The minimum patterned feature sizes in a chip are 0.75 micron and the transistor electrical channel is 0.5 micron. These factors, coupled with other unique applications of certain semiconductor materials, allow the first Alpha chips to pack 1.68 million transistors with measured performance at up to 200 MHz. Other features that allow CMOS-4 to produce world-leading, very large scale integrated (VLSI) circuit chips include three levels of interconnect metal (with very low third-level resistance), precision resistors, local interconnect for dense RAM, low resistance grounding ring, low resistance diffused silicon, and laser alterable metal fuses. The production facilities in the U.S. and Europe operate at ultra-high levels of purity and control, giving Digital best-in-class manufacturing cycle times and product yields. Please contact your local Digital sales office for more information. ALPHA -- THE FASTEST MICROPROCESSOR HIGHLIGHTS o Digital announces the Alpha microprocessor (21064-AA), the first chip-level implementation of the Alpha architecture o The Alpha chip is the fastest CMOS microprocessor available in the world, with a clock rate of up to 200 MHz o This single-chip implementation of the Alpha architecture provides the best RISC price/performance in the industry OVERVIEW Digital is announcing a new microprocessor that provides the best RISC solution in the industry. The 21064-AA chip is the first in a family of devices that will offer solutions at all levels of integration. The 21064-AA microprocessor has a clock rate of up to 200 MHz and a superscalar micro-architecture that dispatches up to two instructions per cycle. CHIP DESCRIPTION The 21064-AA chip implements the full 64-bit Alpha architecture using Digital's state-of-the-art CMOS-4 technology. In addition to being the CPU engine designed to power the initial Alpha system products, it will provide all the longer-term benefits of the new architecture. By taking advantage of the inherent efficiency of the architecture and by using high-performance CMOS circuit design techniques, the chip operates at a clock rate higher than those of any other commercial CMOS microprocessor in the industry. In addition, the micro-architecture is designed to allow two instructions to be issued in each clock cycle. With a total transistor count of 1.68 million devices, the 21064-AA chip is a complete CPU, including full integer and floating-point execution units. These units, together with related addressing and branching units, are fully pipelined, and each is capable of launching a new operation every cycle. In addition, the chip includes two high-speed primary caches. An 8 Kbyte instruction cache provides two full 32-bit instructions per clock cycle to the instruction dispatch unit, and an 8 Kbyte data cache can provide 64-bit data access during each cycle. The resulting cache bandwidth of 3.2 Gbytes per second far exceeds what could be accomplished if these cache units were not fully integrated. The interface from the chip to external elements has been engineered for high performance and flexibility. This has allowed Digital to incorporate it into a variety of hardware platforms spanning a broad range of computer applications. In addition to custom interface solutions, the chip interfaces to external components via standard off-the-shelf devices. AVAILABILITY The 21064-AA microprocessor is available now for your evaluation. Production quantities will be available in July 1992. Please contact your local Digital sales office for more information. VMS FOR ALPHA HIGHLIGHTS o Alpha brings the power of RISC computing to the VMS software environment o The VMS software for Alpha port (based on V5.4-2) preserves and enhances all VMS operating system strengths o Moving most VMS applications to the Alpha platform is as easy as recompile and run ENHANCING YOUR VMS PROTECTION Alpha technology enriches the VMS software environment with the performance leadership of RISC. Thus it enhances the capabilities of the current VMS environment and provides it with a smooth evolution to the future information environment. The VMS operating system will continue to introduce functionality on both VAX and Alpha systems to meet the increasing requirements of tomorrow's computing environment. Digital's continued investment in VMS operating system features and capabilities will maintain VMS benefits for users in the business critical environment. PORT OF VMS VMS software for Alpha is a true "port" of the VMS V5.4-2 sources to the Alpha architecture, just as other operating systems in the computer industry are ported. Cross-development tools were built that accepted VAX MACRO32, BLISS, and C sources and output VMS software for Alpha object modules/images. The VMS operating system has not been rewritten or redesigned. To understand what occurred during the port of the VMS software, consider the following diagram: +----------------------------------------------+ Application Layer | Applications | +-------------+-----------+------------------+ | User Interface Layer | Motif | DCL | Utilities | | +-------------+-----------+----------------+ | | Callable Libraries | Runtime Libraries (RTLs) | | | +----------------------------------------+ | | | Higher Operating | System Services | | | | System Layers | | | | | +--------------------------------------+ | | | | | Scheduler, | | | | | Operating System +--------------+ Swapper, ... | | | | | Kernel | Memory | | | | | | | Management | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +-------+---------------+ | | | | | | | Drivers | | | | | | +------+----+-----------+------+----+--+-+-+-+-+ Hardware | Memory | Disks | Tapes | CPU | +-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+ Diagram 1: What Software Has Knowledge of Hardware? The lowest level of the operating system code -- such as boot code, memory management code, and scheduling code -- was modified to work on Alpha systems. This "kernel" of an operating system has intimate knowledge of the hardware. The next layer of operating system software, such as system services and file services, has very little knowledge about hardware. (For example, logical name translation or mailbox devices are software constructs with no hardware-specific knowledge at all.) Layered above the operating system are the callable runtime libraries (RTLs) and user interfaces, such as Motif, XUI, and DCL. These software layers interface with the lower layers of software, not with hardware. All the various VMS utilities speak to these software layers below them. Thus, porting the VMS operating system to the Alpha technology means that all the various software layers that make up the VMS software environment have been moved to the Alpha system. MOVING VMS APPLICATIONS So what does this mean for VMS applications? It means that all the various pieces of software that make up the VMS operating system will still be there, still use the same interfaces, and look the same as they did to VAX VMS programs. All the various runtime libraries, system services, file systems, application interfaces, network interfaces, layered products, etc., will be there for a VMS application to use. While it is possible for an application to have hardware-specific knowledge built into it (such as memory page size), it is much more likely to be protected from hardware specifics by the underlying software layers. Moving a VMS application to the Alpha environment is easy -- just recompile and run. Experience in moving user applications to Alpha has proved this to be true; even the migration of the complex VMS operating system code has gone smoothly and ahead of schedule. So when Digital says "VMS is VMS," what Digital is really saying is that all the layers of software that comprise the VMS environment will be there on Alpha systems running VMS software just as they are on VAX VMS systems. System managers, users, programmers -- all will see the same VMS environment whether it is on a VAX system or on an Alpha system. So Alpha systems running VMS software provide future protection for the investments you make today in VAX VMS solutions applications, data, training, support, site policies and procedures, etc. 64-BIT HARDWARE 64-bit hardware functionality consists of two main features, 64-bit integers and 64-bit virtual addressing. Alpha systems running VMS software will initially support 64-bit integers and phase in 64-bit addressing in a later release. Alpha systems running VMS software will provide access to 64-bit integers through standard mechanisms for the various languages such as C and FORTRAN. Another nice new feature is that 64-bit integers provide an efficient internal representation of 18 digits of packed decimal data. The COBOL compiler for Alpha systems will transparently convert packed decimal data upon input/output to/from this new representation. Packed decimal calculations will then be done quickly with the new format. This means that COBOL applications will have good performance on Alpha systems. What about 64-bit virtual addressing? The VMS operating system has a number of interfaces, such as item lists, that have 32-bit virtual addresses embedded in them. Initially, Alpha systems running VMS software will be implemented with 32-bit virtual addressing to preserve the application interfaces and ensure easy migration of applications to Alpha. Just as VMS systems have evolved in the past, from isolated systems to networks to VAXcluster systems, so the VMS environment will continue to evolve, making 64-bit virtual addressing available to future applications. Digital is committed to providing a 32-bit environment for applications that have no need for 64-bit virtual addressing, so these 32-bit applications will not need changes in the future when Alpha systems running VMS software provide 64-bit virtual addressing capabilities for those applications which do need a larger address space. In summary, VMS software for Alpha has been designed so users will quickly see the same rich-featured, robust environment as VAX VMS users see today: o Same software development environment o Same user interface o Same file system o Same system management o Same networking and network management o Same cluster systems o Same ... Please contact your local Digital sales office for more information. __________ Motif is a registered trademark of the Open Software Foundation, Inc. DEC OSF/1 FOR ALPHA HIGHLIGHTS o DEC OSF/1 for Alpha development is underway, demonstrating Digital's ability to deliver the industry's leadership UNIX platform o DEC OSF/1 for Alpha software will offer UNIX users 64-bit, high-performance systems o DEC OSF/1 for Alpha software will protect your investments DEC OSF/1 FOR ALPHA PROGRAM In May 1988, Digital was instrumental in the formation of the Open Software Foundation. A year later, Digital announced it would deliver the OSF operating system technology, OSF/1, as its strategic UNIX platform. In March 1991, Digital was the first major vendor to offer an OSF/1 Advanced Development Kit. Last month, Digital was the first major vendor to offer a commercial implementation of OSF/1, with the announcement of DEC OSF/1 for MIPS systems (refer to the January 31, 1992, issue of Digital's Customer Update for a complete description of DEC OSF/1 for MIPS software). Now, with the Alpha technology announcement featured in this issue, Digital is poised to deliver the industry's technology and performance leadership UNIX platform. Alpha technology will provide performance leadership with 64-bit addressing to give you more power than ever before. Together, Alpha systems and DEC OSF/1 software will provide you with leadership hardware plus Digital's feature-rich implementation of OSF/1. DEC OSF/1 for Alpha software will include fully integrated OSF/Motif, X11, Logical Volume Manager, realtime extensions, shared libraries, and DECthreads -- the same features that are available with DEC OSF/1 for MIPS software. In addition, DEC OSF/1 for Alpha software will serve to offer Digital's diverse UNIX users, including ULTRIX and System V users, a single base on which to build the solutions they need. Digital's approach to UNIX is simple: Provide a single implementation of OSF/1 that supports multiple architectures, including both MIPS and, with this technology announcement, Alpha systems. Most DEC OSF/1 applications written for MIPS can be ported to Alpha by a simple recompile and relink to take advantage of 64-bit technology. Existing ULTRIX applications can also be easily ported to Alpha because of the high level of ULTRIX compatibility in DEC OSF/1 software. Simply stated, Alpha extends the range of UNIX platforms available to Digital users. You can buy MIPS systems with ULTRIX or DEC OSF/1 software today with the assurance that your applications will move easily to Digital's high-performance Alpha systems. Your application investment is protected. Please contact your local Digital sales office for more information. __________ UNIX is a registered trademark of UNIX System Laboratories, Inc. OSF/Motif, OSF/1, and OSF are registered trademarks of the Open Software Foundation, Inc. System V is a trademark of American Telephone & Telegraph Co. ALPHA TECHNOLOGY LICENSING HIGHLIGHTS o Digital is licensing Alpha technology o New business practices -- Digital is opening the Alpha technology at all levels of integration WHAT WILL DIGITAL LICENSE AND SELL? Digital's position is simple: to make Alpha technology pervasive and the leading 64-bit architecture. Discussions have already begun with a number of companies to enter into a variety of technology alliances and partnerships. Specificallly, Digital will: o License the Alpha architecture o Sell Alpha chips and boards o License operating systems and environments o Sell a full range of Alpha-based systems and software WHAT DOES TECHNOLOGY LICENSING DO FOR YOU? Alpha licensing broadens your base of choices in operating environment and applications and offers you the broadest possible range of system families from embedded products to supercomputers. Alpha licensing will attract a variety of sources for applications and specialty systems. Thus you will find compatible systems and products from other vendors to amplify your application investments. Digital's licensing plans demonstrate its commitment to open business practices and open technology. Please contact your local Digital sales office for more information. ALPHA IN EMBEDDED APPLICATIONS HIGHLIGHTS o Alpha products will be available in chips, boards, boxes, and systems EMBEDDED APPLICATIONS Alpha technology is now available to help you integrate computers into your products. Digital will provide Alpha computers at all levels of integration -- microprocessors, single-board computers, boxes, and systems. Digital is selling Alpha chips directly to users. Digital is also working with several of the leaders in the industry to provide single-board computers based on Alpha. Through these relationships, Digital will sell Alpha single-board computers based on popular industry buses such as the VME, Futurebus+, and TURBOchannel buses. These relationships will provide a number of alternatives for you in designing Alpha into your products. Please contact your local Digital sales office for more information. DIGITAL SERVICES PROGRAMS FOR ALPHA HIGHLIGHTS o Digital Services will support Alpha with two major categories of service: End User Services for new and existing Digital users; and Vendor Services for other vendors who use the Alpha technology in their products o End User Services will focus on Consulting Services, Migration Services, and Educational and Training Services o Application Migration Centers will help with the planning and orderly transition from current environments to the new Alpha-based environment As technology advancement accelerates, services are fast becoming a major factor in selecting a vendor. In addition to the traditional Digital Services portfolio, Digital Services will deliver services designed specifically to meet the needs of Alpha users. ALPHA END USER SERVICES End User Services are focused on three main areas: Consulting Services, Migration Services, and Educational and Training Services. These services are designed to assist end users in the successful planning, design, implementation, and management of a new Alpha environment. Beginning with Alpha, Digital will implement the Advanced Services Architecture. This program will allow you to interact with services online through service windows on your screen, which will make it quick and easy to request service support, order documentation, gain access to informational databases, and receive updates and corrective code, among other things. Consulting Services Consulting Services will be offered to all levels of management. Prudent business practices call for transitioning to Alpha-based systems in a planned and orderly fashion. Consulting Services will assist managers in understanding the impact and benefits of the Alpha technology on their business -- how the technology can be used for business purposes and for opening new areas of business opportunities. Digital Services will help develop strategies for integration or migration to the Alpha technology, based on the business needs of the company. A well-planned migration strategy would start now and evolve over a period of years. In addition to the Alpha systems migration, the impact on personnel, operational procedures, and facilities will be addressed. Migration Services Migration Services will be available to support Alpha integration and migration, from application porting to conversion to migration. Code conversions and porting could be done immediately, while other activities would occur in a phased manner. Migration Services are part of Digital's investment protection program, as they will help you make a smooth transition from your existing environment to the Alpha technology without losing the benefit of the systems you have already purchased. There will be three types of support available: you handle the migration; you work together with Digital; or Digital handles the entire migration for you. To support the migration program, Digital is staffing Application Migration Centers. These resource centers will offer support for planning, application migration, and integration of Alpha systems. You can obtain help through the Application Migration Center before and after you purchase Alpha products, from benchmarking to consulting. Educational and Training Services There will be a wide array of educational services available to support Alpha. Courses will cover the Alpha architecture, hardware implementation, system and application design implications, and the migration of existing applications to the new architecture. Digital will also work with you to develop educational training plans that you can implement to support your own end users. Training and courses will also be offered on the OSF and open VMS operating systems for Alpha systems. BENEFITS Working with Digital Services you can: o Efficiently plan, design, implement, and manage the integration of the Alpha technology into your existing computing environments. o Understand the technology benefits of Alpha and how it can be applied to expand and improve the business processes of your company and reduce time to market for your products. o Be assured that your current computing investments will be fully protected. ALPHA VENDOR SERVICES Alpha Vendor Services will be offered to vendors who buy Alpha chips and incorporate them into their own products. This will include components of computer or noncomputer products. Many of these services are an extension of Digital's Multi-Vendor Support program. Building on established knowledge bases and infrastructures, Digital will provide "brand name" services on behalf of third-party vendors that have the Alpha chip imbedded in their products. Thus, Digital can become the service provider for the vendor. This could include, for example, utilizing Digital's global logistics and software update systems and implementation of 800 number call handling. Watch for further service information for Alpha in future issues of Digital's Customer Update. Please contact your local Digital sales office for more information. __________ OSF is a registered trademark of the Open Software Foundation, Inc. ALPHA ARCHITECTURE TECHNICAL SUMMARY HIGHLIGHTS o Technical details on the exciting Alpha 64-bit RISC architecture and its 25-year, designed-in capabilities WHAT IS ALPHA? Alpha is a 64-bit RISC architecture, designed with particular emphasis on speed, multiple instruction issue, multiple processors, software migration from VAX VMS and MIPS ULTRIX systems, and long lifetime. The architects rejected any feature that did not appear to be usable for at least 25 years. The first chip implementation runs at up to 200 MHz. The speed of Alpha implementations is expected to scale up from this by at least a factor of 1000 over the next 25 years. FORMATS Data Formats Alpha is a load/store RISC architecture with all operations done between registers. Alpha has 32 integer registers and 32 floating registers, each 64 bits. Integer register R31 and floating register F31 are always zero. Longword (32-bit) and quadword (64-bit) integers are supported. Four floating datatypes are supported: VAX F-float, VAX G-float, IEEE single (32-bit), and IEEE double (64-bit). Memory is accessed via 64-bit virtual little-endian byte addresses. Instruction Formats Alpha instructions are all 32 bits, in four different instruction formats specifying 0, 1, 2, or 3 register fields. All formats have a 6-bit opcode. +-----+-------------------------+ | OP | number | PALcall +-----+----+--------------------+ | OP | RA | disp | Branch +-----+----+----+---------------+ | OP | RA | RB | disp | Memory +-----+----+----+----------+----+ | OP | RA | RB | func. | RC | Operate +-----+----+----+----------+----+ PALcall instructions specify one of a few dozen complex operations to be performed. Conditional branches test register RA and specify a signed 21-bit PC-relative longword target displacement. Subroutine calls put the return address in RA. Loads and stores move longwords or quadwords between RA and memory, using RB plus a signed 16-bit displacement as the memory address. Operates use source registers RA and RB, writing result register RC. There is an extended opcode in the 11-bit function field. Integer operates can use the RB field and part of the function field to specify an 8-bit, zero-extended literal. INSTRUCTIONS PALcall Instructions The Privileged Architecture Library (PALcall) instructions specify one of a few dozen complex functions to be performed. These functions deal with interrupts and exceptions, task switching, virtual memory, and other complex operations that must be done atomically. PALcall instructions branch to a privileged library of software subroutines (using the same Alpha instruction set) that implement an operating system specific set of these complex operations. Branch Instructions Conditional branch instructions can test a register for positive/negative or for zero/nonzero. They can also test integer registers for even/odd. Unconditional branch instructions can write a return address into a register. There is also a calculated jump instruction that branches to an arbitrary 64-bit address in a register. Load/Store Instructions Load and store instructions can move either 32- or 64-bit aligned quantities. The VAX floating-point load/store instructions swap words to give a consistent register format for floats. Memory addresses are flat 64-bit virtual addresses with no segmentation. A 32-bit integer datum is placed in a register in a canonical form that makes 33 copies of the high bit of the datum. A 32-bit floating datum is placed in a register in a canonical form that extends the exponent by 3 bits and extends the fraction with 29 low-order zeros. 32-bit operates preserve these canonical forms. There are no 8- or 16-bit load/store instructions, but there are facilities for doing byte manipulation in registers. Alpha has no 32/64 mode bit or other such device. Compilers, as directed by user declarations, can generate any mixture of 32- and 64-bit operations. Integer Operate Instructions The integer operate instructions manipulate full 64-bit values and include the usual assortment of arithmetic, compare, logical, and shift instructions. There are just three 32-bit integer operates: add, subtract, and multiply. These differ from their 64-bit counterparts only in overflow detection and in producing 32-bit canonical results. There is no integer divide instruction. In addition to the operations found in conventional RISC architectures, there are scaled add/subtract for quick subscript calculation, 128-bit multiply for division by a constant and multiprecision arithmetic, conditional moves for avoiding branches, and an extensive set of in-register byte manipulation instructions for avoiding single-byte writes. Rather than keeping a global state bit for integer overflow trap enable, the enable is encoded in the function field of each instruction. Thus, both ADDQ/V and ADDQ opcodes exist for specifying 64-bit add with and without overflow checking. This makes pipelined implementations easier. Floating-point Operate Instructions The floating operate instructions include four complete sets of VAX and IEEE arithmetic, plus conversions between float and integer. There is no floating square root instruction. In addition to the operations found in conventional RISC architectures, there are conditional moves for avoiding branches, and merge sign/exponent instructions for simple field manipulation. Rather than keeping global state bits for arithmetic trap enables and rounding mode, these enable and mode bits are encoded in the function field of each instruction. SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES FROM CONVENTIONAL RISC PROCESSORS First, Alpha is a true 64-bit architecture with a minimal number of 32-bit instructions. It is not a 32-bit architecture that was later expanded to 64 bits. Second, Alpha was designed to allow very-high-speed implementations. The instructions are very simple (no load-four-registers-unaligned-and-check- for-bytes-of-zero). There are no special registers that would prevent pipelining multiple instances of the same operations (no MQ register and no condition codes). The instructions interact with each other only by one instruction writing a register or memory, and another one reading from the same place. This makes it particularly easy to build implementations that issue multiple instructions every CPU cycle. (The first implementation, in fact, issues two instructions every cycle.) There are no implementation- specific pipeline timing hazards, no load-delay slots, and no branch-delay slots. These features would make it difficult to maintain binary compatibility across multiple implementations and difficult to maintain full speed on multiple-issue implementations. Alpha is unconventional in the approach to byte manipulation. Single-byte stores found in conventional RISC architectures force cache and memory implementations to include byte shift-and-mask logic, and sequencer logic to perform read-modify-write on memory words. This approach is awkward to implement quickly and tends to slow down cache access to normal 32- or 64-bit aligned quantities. It also makes it awkward to build a high-speed error-correcting, write-back cache, which is often needed to keep a very fast RISC implementation busy. It also can make it difficult to pipeline multiple byte operations. Instead, the byte .hifting and masking is done in Alpha with normal 64-bit register-to-register instructions, crafted to keep the sequences short. Alpha is also unconventional in the approach to arithmetic traps. In contrast to conventional RISC architectures, Alpha arithmetic traps (overflow, underflow, etc.) are imprecise -- they can be delivered an arbitrary number of instructions after the instruction that triggered the trap, and traps from many different instructions can be reported at once. This makes implementations that use pipelining and multiple issue substantially easier to build. If precise arithmetic exceptions are desired, trap barrier instructions can be explicitly inserted in the program to force traps to be delivered at specific points. Alpha is also unconventional in the approach to multiprocessor shared memory. As viewed from a second processor (including an I/O device), a sequence of reads and writes issued by one processor may be arbitrarily reordered by an implementation. This allows implementations to use multibank caches, bypassed write buffers, write merging, pipelined writes with retry on error, etc. If strict ordering between two accesses must be maintained, memory barrier instructions can be explicitly inserted in the program. The basic multiprocessor interlocking primitive is a RISC-style load_locked, modify, store_conditional sequence. If the sequence runs without interrupt, exception, or an interfering write from another processor, then the conditional store succeeds. Otherwise, the store fails and the program eventually must branch back and retry the sequence. This style of interlocking scales well with very fast caches and makes Alpha an especially attractive architecture for building multiple-processor systems. Alpha includes a number of hints for implementations, all aimed at allowing higher speed. Calculated jumps have a target hint that can allow much faster subroutine calls and returns. There are prefetching hints for the memory system that can allow much higher cache hit rates. There are also granularity hints for the virtual-address mapping that can allow much more effective use of translation lookaside buffers for big contiguous structures. Alpha includes a very flexible privileged library of software for operating system specific operations, invoked with PALcall instructions. This library allows Alpha to run full VMS functionality using one version of this software library that mirrors many of the VAX system features, and to run OSF/1 software using a different version that mirrors many of the MIPS system features. Other versions could be tailored for realtime, teaching, etc. The PALcall instructions allow Alpha to run the VMS operating system with little more hardware than a conventional RISC machine has (the PAL mode bit itself, plus 4 extra protection bits in each TB entry). This library makes Alpha an especially attractive architecture for multiple operating systems. Finally, Alpha is not strongly biased toward only one or two programming languages. It is an attractive architecture for compiling at least a dozen different languages. Please contact your local Digital sales office for more information.