10 Nov
2005
10 Nov
'05
10:17 a.m.
>>>> "Patrick" == Patrick
Finnegan <pat at computer-refuge.org> writes:
Patrick> No, those were "DEC 3000"s. DECstations (3000/5000/etc)
Patrick> were all MIPS.
Patrick> And, from what I've heard, at least one reason that DEC made
Patrick> Alpha, and didn't port VMS to the MIPS architecture, is
Patrick> because they'd have to make a lot of changes to VMS, because
Patrick> of its security model, in order to make it work with MIPS.
Patrick> Aparently, MIPS just didn't work enough like a VAX CPU to
Patrick> easily port VMS to it.
Maybe. But I wonder what could be missing that Alpha has and MIPS
doesn't that is so critical.
Supposedly, the only reason MIPS has supervisor mode is that DEC
insisted on having it added.
paul