Re: why support alpha??

On Wed, Dec 10, 2003 at 08:51:36PM -0500, eqe_at_cox.net wrote:
> sorry it was my impression that their would be no further versions of alpha 
> and or at least it's growth is suspect. But I will reseach this now. and 
> again this email was just a thought about improving freebsd as a whole 
> nothing more I just found it  strange that in 5.2 there would be so much 
> backward compatability and could not help but wonder for what purpose I would 
> never build a new server with a 386,486,or 586 for that matter. 

Embedded and/or industrial PCs.
There are many specialized systems available out there with low power
consuption, designed out door usage in artic temperatures and so on.
Such hardware is usually very expensive and performance of old CPUs is
often sufficient - no need to buy new hardware.
Especially as 486 CPUs are still produced, but with a much lower size and
power consumption then the original 486 - e.g. the AMD Elan SC520.
Support for systems without mathematic coprocessor was already dropped.

Don't call hardware dead before it really is :)

-- 
B.Walter                   BWCT                http://www.bwct.de
ticso_at_bwct.de                                  info_at_bwct.de