more on alpha

[David G. Hough on validgh]

Apparently it's true: alpha does not support VAX D format as a native
type.   There are convert instructions between VAX D and VAX G, it seems.
 From a hardware point of view it's obvious that D format would have been
more difficult - G and IEEE double have sign/exponent/significand
boundaries in the same places - but the justification for retaining G seems
weak to me.   If alpha is not going to offer exact bitwise compatibility
with the VAX VMS Fortran D format standard at native performance levels,
so that people interested in performance will have to convert to either
G format or IEEE double, I find it hard to believe that a commercially
significant number would pick G, with no significant installed base,
over IEEE double, which is what is running on every other PC and workstation.

Alpha is supposed to ship in quantity in July at $1500 per; at that price,
it will be a while before you can buy them in desktop systems, as opposed
to Crays or Kubotas.