When researching alpha stuff, I happened across a PDF titled "Tarantula: A Vector Extension to the Alpha Architecture".

Let me quote:


Surely I didn't read this right?! 8192 bit vector registers?! And Intel is touting its new 256 bit AVX extensions?

The Inquirer says that the Tarantula extensions would have added 32 1024 bit vector registers. I can only assume the official white paper linked above would be more accurate, but in either case, it doesn't appear any current processors come close to providing what the EV8 would have given us by now.

Good God. This is just one more reason to mourn the death of the alpha. Forget EV8, EV10s would be the top of the line now had alpha not been murdered, and just think what they would provide beyond 8192 bit vector operations...

Well the EV8 was never made so it is all academic now. But I expect there are very few applications that can make good use of such a wide register. The current bunch of GPUs are probably already exceeding the level of the EV8, so I doubt we are missing much.