> given the current crop of CPUs that are available.  which would you all
> choose to base a computer around?

well, back before intel crushed all competition in the 32-bit space, there
were some very promising chips from fairchild (clipper), nec (v80), mipsco,
and of course national semi (32000).

now that intel has begun to crush all competition in the 64-bit space, we
have seen the end of digital/compaq (alpha) and will likely see the death
of mips (mips64 20kc), unless mips puts it in a non-server non-desktop niche
like games and set top boxes and palmtops (which is how they stayed alive
this long).

i have never taken sparc seriously.  c'mon, register windows?  kidding, right?

hppa64's days are numbered -- hp does not intend to challenge the wintel
combine once the itanipig's rocket boosters have been attached.

i don't know what to make of amd's sledgehammer effort.  did they can it?
did they ever tape out?  are there any design wins anywhere?  still adrift?

pretty much the only thing wintel won't kill is the motorola 7500 ("g5")
since microsoft has an investment in apple (to keep the justice dept's
hounds at bay) and apple must be allowed to play in 64-bit land.

oh and while researching for this article i reread the highly recommended:

	http://www.zdnet.com/sp/breaking/971117/breaking21.html

i guess the whole idea of having more than one kind of cpu to choose from
is pretty much pass'e.  other than whatever intel allows to exist in order
to give the justice dept a box to "check off" on the monopoly forms.  (i'm
amazed that it's not alpha, but i'm not amazed that it's happening.)