Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] powerpc/g4 and Alpha
From: Frank J. Carmickle (frankiec_AT_unforgettable.com)
Date: to loka 07 1999 - 00:37:53 EDT
At 02:02 PM 10/5/99 -0700, you wrote:
>Paul Barton-Davis discourseth:
>> >Sometimes I wonder how Linux is running G4 PowerMacs.
>>
>> You're not the only one :) OTOH, its not clear to what extent there is
>> any plan to offer SMP motherboards or support for the G4. Also, Benno
>> pointed me at the AMD K7 (Athlon) which looks like it should be able
>> to match the G4 *and* will have SMP motherboards available RSN. The
>> price is right, too.
We all know why the Athlan is as good as it is. It uses the Alpha EV6 bus.
I would like to see us focus on being completely cross platform for the
reasons that the G4 and the Alpha have a lot to offer the Linux audio
community.
>
>i'm excited about both!
>
>g4 has the altivec simd unit which has 32 128-bit registers and a
>beautiful instruction set. 3dnow on the athlon, otoh, is virtually
>broken..i haven't heard whether amd has plans to fix this
>
>also, i'd bet money that there will be some interesting powerpc
>hardware alternatives next year..check out www.totalimpact.com, for
>example
One of the things that bothers me is that the RME cards are supported by
OSS on X86 only. Don't they know that if anything they should have drivers
just for Alpha. I'm sorry but we are limited by how much processing power
we have by are computers. Don't they know this and can't they read the
bench marks? Alpha is and will be the fastest processor on the market for
quite some time. Cost is very much another issue but Alpha's aren't
usually as expensive as people might think.
FJC
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b28 : pe maalis 10 2000 - 07:27:13 EST