[juneau-lug] Re: Microsoft and Microprocessors?

  • From: Tony <tony.taylor@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: juneau-lug@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Fri, 10 Oct 2003 00:19:06 -0800

They have stifled microprocessor development.  Several times, Intel 
wanted to diverge from complete backwards compatibility, to make a leap 
forward in processor technology.  For instance, the way memory is 
managed in their Pentium 4 is not significantly different from the way 
it is managed on a 386, which was constrained by the historical 16-bit 
compatibility issues with the 8086/8088.  This was forced by Microsoft 
at the time for the purpose of backwards compatibility.

There is a similar story with the Alpha.  Microsoft hamstrung the Alpha 
(the fastest chip on the market, bar none) by using it only in 32-bit 
mode, which made it cost-innefective.  There is a strong argument that, 
had NT made use of the Alpha's power, DEC would have been able to push 
NT into the server room much sooner.  But, because of the technical 
limitations of NT, and Microsoft's dominant market, DEC was stuck 
selling a few Alphas for VMS (and later Digital Unix), and that's about it.

The question comes down to a simple thought-experiment.  Is the world 
better off with one kind of processor, or many?  If you are from the 
camp that a single, de-facto standard processor is better than many 
divergent, incompatible processors, then Microsoft has been a windfall 
for processor design.  If you feel that several competing processors are 
good for the market, then Microsoft has emmasculated the market.

I am of the later group.  Look at the way Apple handled the transition 
to the PowerPC (which suffered similar problems with 
backward-compatiblity as the Intel line, but to a lesser extent): it was 
a little rough for the users, but Apple came out a stronger company, 
with better products.

I could carry this discussion over to the entire computer, as right now 
the bottleneck for the PC is not the processor, but the IO subsystem. 
But in that argument, peripheral and PC manufacturers are also culpable.

Anyway, that's my analysis.  As always, I could be wrong.

                                - Tony

Jeremy C. Hansen wrote:
> I am not old enough to remember, but I must ask... What has Microsoft
> done for the construction of microprocessors?  It would seem to me from
> a investment standpoint that they had quite the influence.
> 
> Jeremy



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