System Overview 1-11
Alpha Chip Composition
The Alpha chip is made using state-of-the-art chip technology, has a transistor count
of 9.3 million, consumes 50 watts of power, and is air cooled (a fan is on the chip).
The default cache system is write-back and when the module has an external cache,
it is write-back.
Chip Description
Unit
Description
Instruction
8-byte cache, 4-way issue
Execution
4-way execution; 2 integer units, 1 floating-point adder,
1 floating-point multiplier
Memory
Merge logic, 8-Kbyte write-through first-level data cache,
96-Kbyte write-back second-level data cache, bus
interface unit
CPU Variants
Module Variant
Clock Frequency
Onboard Cache
Color
B3007-AA
400 MHz
4 Mbytes
Orange
B3007-CA
533 MHz
4 Mbytes
Violet
CPU Configuration Rules
•
The first CPU must be in CPU slot 0 to provide the system clock.
•
The second CPU should be installed in CPU slot 1.
•
Both CPUs must have the same Alpha chip clock speed. The system bus will
hang without an error message if the oscillators clocking the CPUs are different.
