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Alpha 21064 - Microarchitectures - DEC
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Alpha 21064 µarch
General Info
Arch TypeCPU
DesignerDEC
ManufacturerDEC
IntroductionNovember 20 1992
Process0.75 µm, 0.675 µm
Core Configs1
Pipeline
TypeSuperscalar
OoOENo
SpeculativeYes
Reg RenamingNo
Stages7-12
Decode2-way
Instructions
ISAAlpha
Cache
L1I Cache8 KiB/core
direct-mapped
L1D Cache8 KiB/core
direct-mapped
L2 Cache0.125-16 MiB/motherboard
Succession

Alpha 21064 was the first Alpha microarchitecture designed by DEC and introduced in 1992.

Etymology

The microarchitecture name Alpha 21064 is composed of both the ISA and the implementation. In particular, the "Alpha" refers to DEC's Alpha AXP instruction set architecture while the "21064" refers to a "21st century"-ready 64-bit "0th generation" microarchitecture.

Release Dates

DEC first announced their 21064 architecture in February of 1992. Alpha 21064-based chips were first introduced during COMDEX on November 20, 1992.

Process Technology

See also: 0.75 µm process

Alpha 21064 was manufactured on DEC's CMOS-4, their then-newest 0.75 µm process. The process offered three levels of aluminum interconnects and a nominal 3.3 V power supply. Note that prior to the introduction of the 21064, DEC produced early "assistance" samples for software developers which were manufactured on an older CMOS-3 process (1 µm). For that reason those chips also had reduced cache amount, in addition to no FPU support.

Compatibility

Vendor OS Version Notes
Microsoft Windows Windows NT Support
DEC OpenVMS OpenVMS AXP V1.0 Initial OpenVMS support
DEC OSF/1 AXP 1.0
Novell Netware 3.2

Architecture

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Die

  • 30 W power dissipation @ 200 MHz, 3.3 V power supply
  • 0.75 µm process
  • 3 metal layers
  • 1,680,000 transistors
  • 13.9 mm x 16.8 mm
  • 233.52 mm² die size
  • PGA-431
    • 291 signal pins
    • 140 power/ground rail pins

References

  • McLellan, Edward. "The Alpha AXP architecture and 21064 processor." IEEE Micro 13.3 (1993): 36-47.
codenameAlpha 21064 +
core count1 +
designerDEC +
first launchedNovember 20, 1992 +
full page namedec/microarchitectures/alpha 21064 +
instance ofmicroarchitecture +
instruction set architectureAlpha +
manufacturerDEC +
microarchitecture typeCPU +
nameAlpha 21064 +
pipeline stages (max)12 +
pipeline stages (min)7 +
process750 nm (0.75 μm, 7.5e-4 mm) + and 675 nm (0.675 μm, 6.75e-4 mm) +