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+Arch Specific Notes -- ALPHA
+============================
+
+The ALPHA port uses the ``alpha`` keyword. It focuses upon HP (formerly Compaq
+(formerly DEC)) hardware. This covers from ``ev4`` (known as 21064) through
+``ev7z`` (known as 21364a).
+
+ALPHA Kernel and Userland ABIs
+------------------------------
+
+All ALPHA systems use a pure 64 bit kernel and a pure 64 bit userland.
+
+All ALPHA systems support both little and big endian -- however, Linux only uses
+little endian.
+
+Additional ALPHA Keywording Requirements
+----------------------------------------
+
+It is generally expected that anyone who does keywording for ALPHA should be on
+the ``alpha@`` alias. However the ALPHA Team is happy if maintainers keyword
+their packages when they have access to ALPHA hardware, although the Team would
+like to know about it.
+
+ALPHA Instruction Set and Performance Notes
+-------------------------------------------
+
+There are six basic ALPHA instructions set standards:
+
+* ``ev4`` or ``ev45``. The ``ev4`` was the first ALPHA processor of the Alpha
+  family. It featured one integer pipeline and one floating-point pipeline.
+  The ``ev45`` is a modified ``ev4`` with double both Data and Instruction cache
+  (D-Cache and I-Cache respectively); it also featured a division optimization.
+* ``ev5`` is an evolution of the ``ev45``. The number of pipelines was doubled
+  and the floating-point pipelines run in 9 stages rather than in 10. The
+  ``ev5`` supports 3 cache levels.
+* ``ev56`` added the BWX extension to load/store data in 8 or 16 bit quanta.
+* ``pca56`` added a new set, MVI (Motion Video Instructions), aimed to
+  accelerate video and audio calculations.
+* ``ev6`` supports all extensions supported by the ``pca56`` and a new set, FIX,
+  meant to move data between integer and floating-point registers and for square
+  root.
+* ``ev67`` is an evolution of the ``ev6``, in addition it supports a new set.
+  CIX adds instructions for counting and finding bits.
+
+When no ``-mcpu`` option is passed to ``gcc`` it defaults to the processor on
+which the compiler was built.
+
+The ``-mieee`` flag **should** always be used unless you have a deep knowledge
+of the ALPHA architecture, so the comments on `Not Filtering Variables`_ are
+really important on ALPHA.
+
+Notes on ALPHA and PIC
+----------------------
+
+General `Position Independent Code`_ policy also applies to ALPHA. In fact,
+ALPHA systems complain loudly if you try to link PIC and non-PIC code. Usually
+this results in errors during the compilation aborting emerge.
+
+Contacting the ALPHA Team
+-------------------------
+
+The ALPHA team can be contacted:
+
+* Via Bugzilla bugs assigned to ``alpha@``
+* Via email to the ``alpha@`` email alias
+* Via email to the ``gentoo-alpha`` mailing list
+* Via the ``#gentoo-alpha`` IRC channel on Freenode
+
+.. vim: set ft=glep tw=80 sw=4 et spell spelllang=en : ..