Editing dec/alpha

{{dec title|Alpha}}
{{ic family
| title             = Alpha
| image             = 
| caption           = 
| no image          = Yes
| developer         = DEC
| developer 2       = Compaq
| developer 3       = HP
| manufacturer      = DEC
| manufacturer 2    = Samsung
| manufacturer 3    = Intel
| manufacturer 4    = IBM
| type              = Microprocessors
| first announced   = February, 1992
| first launched    = November 20, 1992
| arch              = Alpha-based performance CPUs
| isa               = Alpha
| microarch         = 21064
| microarch 2       = 21164
| microarch 3       = 21264
| microarch 4       = 21364
| word              = 64 bit
| proc              = 0.75 μm
| proc 2            = 0.675 µm
| proc 3            = 0.50 µm
| proc 4            = 0.35 µm
| proc 5            = 0.25 µm
| proc 6            = 0.18 µm
| proc 7            = 0.13 µm
| tech              = CMOS
| clock min         = 100 MHz
| clock max         = 2,000 MHz
| package           = PGA-431
| package 2         = PGA-499
| package 3         = PGA-587
| package 4         = PGA-1443
| package 5         = 
| socket            = 
| socket 2          = 
}}
'''Alpha''' was a family of {{arch|64}} [[Alpha]]-based performance microprocessors designed by [[DEC]] and introduced in [[1992]].

== Overview ==
Throughout the mid-80s [[DEC]] saw the rise of a number of [[RISC]] architectures such as [[MIPS]] and [[SPARC]] which they considered serious competition that will ultimately defeat DEC's best attempts to improve [[VAX]]. After close to half a dozen resource projects, in the late 1980s DEC finally established an engineering team tasked with the job of creating a high-performance architecture that would be able to compete with those architectures all while providing an easy as possible migration path for existing VAX users and MIPS users. Their result was the [[DEC Alpha]], an entirely new {{arch|64}} architecture that would have at least a 25-year future by eliminating many architectural restrictions they thought would prevent them from improving in the future.

Introduced in late 1992, Alpha was a family of microprocessors designed for high-end desktops, workstations, and servers. At their introduction, those chips were the world's fastest, though their competitiveness dropped at later iterations (though some attributed this to Alpha's acquisition by Compaq in [[1998]]). Alpha CPUs have gone through a handful of microarchitectures, each improving performance and capabilities.

Following DEC's acquisition by [[Compaq]] in 1998, Alpha's architecture was licensed to [[Samsung]] with the processors marketed and supported through [[Alpha Processor, Inc|API]] for a short period of time. Since Compaq was already committed to Intel's {{intel|Itanium}}, Alpha's development more or less fell by the wayside. Despite continuous development of Alpha by Compaq, Compaq really didn't know what to do with Alpha and by [[2001]] they announced that they would phase out Alpha in favor of {{intel|Itanium}}. HP showed renewed interest in Alpha following Compaq's merger with HP in 2001. Nevertheless, HP never restarted the development of the {{compaq|Alpha 21464|l=arch}} and the family was entirely phased out by the mid 2000s.

== Models ==
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designer	DEC +, Compaq + and HP +
first announced	February 1992 +
first launched	November 20, 1992 +
full page name	dec/alpha +
instance of	microprocessor family +
instruction set architecture	Alpha +
main designer	DEC +
manufacturer	DEC +, Samsung +, Intel + and IBM +
microarchitecture	21064 +, 21164 +, 21264 + and 21364 +
name	Alpha +
package	PGA-431 +, PGA-499 +, PGA-587 + and PGA-1443 +
process	750 nm (0.75 μm, 7.5e-4 mm) +, 675 nm (0.675 μm, 6.75e-4 mm) +, 500 nm (0.5 μm, 5.0e-4 mm) +, 350 nm (0.35 μm, 3.5e-4 mm) +, 250 nm (0.25 μm, 2.5e-4 mm) +, 180 nm (0.18 μm, 1.8e-4 mm) + and 130 nm (0.13 μm, 1.3e-4 mm) +
technology	CMOS +
word size	64 bit (8 octets, 16 nibbles) +