Which Machines Do Computer Architects Admire? (2013)
I think one of the most influential designs of recent times has been the DEC Alpha lineage of 64-bit RISC processors[1]. Originally introduced in 1992, with a superscalar design, branch prediction,  instruction and data caches, register renaming, speculative execution, etc. My understanding is that when these came out, they were way ahead of any other CPU out there, both in terms of innovative design and performance.<p>Looking at this chip, it seems to me that almost all the innovations Intel brought to the Pentium lines of CPU over many years were basically reimplementing features pioneered by the DEC Alpha, just over a decade later, and bringing these innovations to consumer-grade CPUs.<p>[1]: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEC_Alpha" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEC_Alpha</a>