Alpha Architecture Handbook

This document is the Alpha Architecture Handbook, Version 4, released in October 1998 by Compaq Computer Corporation. It provides comprehensive technical specifications for the 64-bit Alpha RISC architecture, including:

• Architecture Overview: Details on the RISC load/store design, data formats, and memory addressing.
• Instruction Set: Exhaustive descriptions of instructions, including integer, floating-point, branch, memory, and PALcode instructions, along with their formats and opcodes.
• System Architecture: Analysis of memory coherency, data sharing, read/write ordering, and arithmetic traps in multiprocessor environments.
• Software Considerations: Guidelines for data alignment, instruction scheduling, and programming practices for high-performance implementation.
• Conformance: Technical details on IEEE floating-point conformance and software-dependent functionality.
• Appendices: Extensive tables for instruction summaries, opcodes in numerical order, processor identifiers, and specific implementation waivers.