Alpha technology could be in 32-bit Itanium kludge

We wonder perhaps if this is the key to Intel's recent announcement to throw a spanner in the Opteron works by emulation with its Itanium microprocessor.

In this 1996 Byte article, Selinda Chiquoine wrote that executing code written for one CPU on another "has always been like the talking dog" - that is, the fact the dog could talk is a miracle in itself, even if all it could say was "sausages".

You will recall that as part of the secret deal between Intel and Compaq - exclusively revealed in the INQ, the chip giant got all the Alpha developers that wanted to work for Chipzilla.

And here is a PDF from August 1997 that explores the miracles of FX!32 more...

As we also exclusively revealed at the Other Plaice, the Alpha development for the NT platform was pulled by The Big Q itself, after suits realised it would never make a single buck after the pouring of many gazillions down the drain.

The rest is mystery. Alpha was traitorously knifed but the 64-bit processor is still managing to feebly utter "Et tu Brute!" even in its long drawn out death throes. µ

See Also
Intel makes Itanium an X86 emulator
Compaq and HP engaged in vicious FUD battle
Transmeta introduces X86 boot speed upgrade
Intel, Lord of the Emulators