Evaluation of Alternative Computer Architectures.

Abstract : The Computer Family Architecture (CFA) Selection Committee was organized to select a proven, well-known computer architecture, in addition to several widely used military computer architectures, as the basis of the future series of Military Computer Family (MCF) computers. The set of four papers that make up this report provide an Overview of the work of the CFA Committee and a detailed discussion of the technical methods used to quantitatively evaluate the alternative computer architectures under consideration. As the first paper describes, support software availability, life cycle costs, and architecture licensing, in addition to architectural efficiency, were considered in the final evaluation process. As a result of this process, the CFA Committee ranked the three architecture finalists in the following order: the DEC PDP-11, the IBM System/370, and the Interdata 8/32. The MCF project is now working on the specification of a new standard architecture for military applications based on the PDP-11. In addition, the MCF project is working on more clearly specifying the most widely used existing military computer architectures to enable future reimplementations of these architectures in new technologies.

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