alpha interval gotcha confirmed

[David G. Hough at validgh]

Article 28563 (1 more) in comp.arch:
From: kirchnerauklira.informatik.uni-kl.de (Reinhard Kirchner)
Subject: Re: Alpha 21064 Floating Point Rounding Modes can be Real Slow
Date: 22 Feb 94 09:22:56 GMT
Organization: University of Kaiserslautern, Germany

On his Alpha presentation at Heidelberg University in 1992 I asked Mr. Sites
about these rounding modes, and he confirmed, that they TRAP.

The codes where put into the instruction set, but a market for the hardware
effort was not seen. So this was not implemented.

I think the Kulisch Group in Karlsruhe would have bought Alpha's as fast as
possible if rounding control where in hardware.

Reinhard Kirchner