The Need

In the past, obtaining a high performing NT Pro/E workstation required a journey into the realm of Digital’s Alpha processor, more specifically the 21164.  The 21164 running at 600MHz, at the time, was something that no x86 CPU could touch in Pro/E. 

If you’re familiar with the architecture of the Alpha, you’ll know that although it has a native port of Windows NT, most NT applications do not have native ports for the Alpha platform.  In order to make the Alpha a viable alternative, Digital developed a binary translator for the Alpha called FX!32  The purpose of FX!32 was to recompile, on the fly, x86 binaries into the native Alpha binaries as well as optimize them for performance with further use. 

Naturally, this binary translation process was not as efficient as running native Alpha code, but it was still faster than anything in the native x86 market thus making it the best option for Pro/E users running Windows NT.  With the announcement that FX!32 would not be supported under Windows 2000, the extremely large Pro/E user base running NT was suddenly left with an ultimatum to find a true x86 alternative to the Alpha. 

Luckily, times have changed, and the Intel Pentium III as well as AMD’s recently released Athlon are both capable of boasting relatively high performing FPUs, much more powerful than those that were present in their respective CPUs when the 21164 was first introduced.  At the same time, setting up a Pentium III or an AMD Athlon system is noticeably cheaper than going with an Alpha workstation under Windows NT; in fact, quite a few of AnandTech’s readers use their tweaked P3 and Athlon systems under NT as powerful workstations without having to spend thousands of dollars on the systems. 

The clock speed battle Intel and AMD are currently engaged in is pushing the levels of performance even higher, and with the x86 platform becoming an even greater contender in the high end workstation market it isn’t surprising to see Pro/E users turning to Intel and AMD to solve their performance problems at a reasonable cost. 

While all of this is going on, the Alpha 21264, the successor to the 21164, has been dominating the charts for quite some time.  At 667MHz, the 21264 has made it extremely difficult for any x86 CPU to rise to the top under Pro/E.  Only with a huge increase in clock speed could the current contenders in the x86 market begin to defeat the 21264 at 667MHz under Pro/E. 

As we just mentioned, with both companies on the verge of announcing 800MHz+ parts, this dream could come true very quickly.