PA-RISC Performance and History
5 hours ago
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- PA-RISC was HP’s RISC architecture, developed from the 1980s to the 2000s, evolving from 32-bit to 64-bit.
- Competed with other RISC platforms like SPARC, MIPS, and Alpha, becoming a top performer in technical computing.
- Early models (PA-7000, PA-7100) were competitive but later models (PA-8000 series) excelled in performance.
- Transitioned to 64-bit with PA-RISC 2.0, starting with PA-8000 in 1996, featuring advanced superscalar and out-of-order execution.
- HP initially manufactured PA-RISC in-house but later outsourced to Intel and IBM due to fabrication challenges.
- PA-RISC processors were known for strong floating-point performance, often outperforming competitors at similar clock speeds.
- The architecture was eventually succeeded by Itanium (IA-64) as part of HP and Intel’s EPIC initiative.
- PA-RISC competed with supercomputers in the late 1990s, particularly in high-performance computing (HPC) workloads.
- Benchmark scores (SPEC, Linpack) show PA-RISC’s competitive edge against RISC and CISC processors of the era.
- The final PA-RISC models (PA-8800, PA-8900) were dual-core designs before the transition to Itanium.