Alpha 21264 Microprocessor Product Brief

This document is a product brief for the Alpha 21264 Microprocessor. It highlights the processor's capabilities, applications, and benefits. The Alpha 21264 is a third-generation 64-bit Alpha Microprocessor designed for high-performance systems, from PC clients to enterprise servers. It boasts impressive benchmarks and bandwidths, supporting up to 30 SPECint95 and 50 SPECfp95, with L2 cache bandwidths over 4 GB/s and memory bandwidths over 2 GB/s. The processor integrates advanced features like motion-video instructions and byte/word operations, and it fully manages its optional L2 cache with flexible bus timing.

The Alpha 21264 supports various operating systems, including Windows NT (chosen as the first 64-bit platform by Microsoft), Windows 95, Digital UNIX, Open VMS, Vx Works, and Linux. It is optimized for visual computing, supporting real-time DVD authoring, and simplifies the development of single or dual Alpha 21264-based systems with the 21272 core logic chipset. The benefits for system developers include delivering high-performance, Windows NT-compatible solutions with investment protection through a migration path to future Alpha generations. For end-users, the 21264 promises a significant performance leap, enabling real-time visual computing, instant data mining, enhanced internet commerce, improved medical imaging, and faster solutions for complex data-set problems.

[Page 2]

This page provides a detailed look at the "Pipeline Operation Sequence" of the Alpha 21264 microprocessor and its technical "Characteristics." The 21264 is described as a four-way out-of-order-issue microprocessor with dynamic scheduling, register renaming, and speculative execution. It features four integer execution units (two of which handle memory address calculations) and two floating-point execution units for arithmetic operations like add, divide, square root, and multiply. The pipeline stages are outlined from cycle 0 (instruction fetch) to cycle 6 (writing results or accessing cache).

The "Characteristics" section provides key specifications:

• Electrical: Power supply requirements (Vss=0.0V, Vdd=2.0V ± 5%), maximum operating temperature (Tj=100 °C), storage temperature range (-55 °C to +125 °C), and estimated power dissipation at 500MHz (60W).
• Package: 588-pin IPGA.
• Transistor Count: 15.2 million.
• Process: 0.35 micron CMOS with six-layer metal.
• Die Size: Approximately 3.1.

The document also includes contact information for Quant-X Service & Consulting Ges.m.b.H. for more information on the Samsung 21164 (a related Alpha microprocessor) and legal disclaimers regarding the information's accuracy and subject to change without notice.