Re: It is almost certain now, INTEL will have 64bit x86 !!
From: Andrew Harrison SUNUK Consultancy (Andrew_No.Harrison_No_at_nospamn.sun.com)
Date: 02/19/04
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Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2004 16:59:32 +0000
Robert Klute wrote:
> On Wed, 18 Feb 2004 16:06:34 -0500, JF Mezei <jfmezei.spamnot@istop.com>
> wrote:
>
>
>
>>HP need to tackle the issue. They cannot pretend nothing happened otherwise
>>they will lose credibility. IA64 has just been relegated to low volume niche
>>market and has absolutely 0 of the originally promised benefits (low cost,
>>industry standard, commodity). Goeing forward with IA64 today means that HP
>>will need to support 4 additional platforms (VMS, NSK, HPUX, Linux) on their
>>IA64 boxes, and then support them on the 8086, on to of the original
>>VAX/Alpha/MIPS/PaRisc support.
>
>
> Why all the platform support? HP could support VMS, NSK, HPUX, Windows,
> and Linux on IA-64. Then support 32-bit and x86-64 Windows and Linux on
> on its Industry Standard Server (ISS) boxes (whether they use AMD or
> Intel chips). The legacy support would slowly dissappear as the
> architectures are retired.
>
Its difficult to see what future the Windows on IPF port has
now that the x86 landscape has been reshaped.
I am sure that Microsoft would like to sell Windows 2003 on
large 8+ way servers but in reality that market is tiny.
Windows platforms with more than 8+ CPU's are not new Sequent,
Unisys and IBM all have or had platforms in this space. Sales
ot these platforms have been very dissapointing.
If you take non x86 platforms then NT on Alpha also supported
8+ CPU systems and again it failed to take off.
Windows on Itanium was always more of a marketing exercise allowing
Microsoft access to the 64bit club than a product that had much
practical use on very large systems.
But the introduction of Windows on AMD64 and Intels new platform
means that Windows on Itanium is now one of 2 64bit platforms
supported by Microsoft and a platform that has huge advantages
for MS. They can for example port SQL-Server and a few other
apps that may benefit from 64bit support but not bother with
the rest of their products that won't. They also do not have
to participate in the same level of ISV capture to the new
platform because only a minority of apps benefit from 64 bit
support.
Windows on Itanium will struggle against:
Customers unwillingness to deploy very large SMP systems using Windows.
The availability of large x86 SMP based systems running essentially the
same OS but with better price performance than Itanium
A very small software portfolio compared with Windows on AMD64.
This has all the characteristics of the situation that hastened the
demise of NT on Alpha.
The same also applies to Linux on Itanium, which basically leaves
IPF as the migration platform for Alpha, MIPS (Tandem) and HP-PA
customers, which would be fine except that the economics of IPF
don't suggest that this would be a sustainable model.
Regards
Andrew Harrison
> Even though it was announced in July (if I remember correctly), there
> are still no 8ways based on the Opteron 800. Intel appears to be
> focusing in on the desktop to 2way space with it's offering. Cray still
> talks about Red Storm with lots of caveats and warnings in its SEC
> disclosures. So, right now, I see little evidence of the x86-64
> architectures being generally used in anything other than the desktop to
> 4way space.
>
> That leaves IA-64 as Intel's offering in the large SMP space. It is a
> place Microsoft wants to be. Its gives HP a single architecture for
> enterprise systems and a separate one for ISS. Coming from a Big
> Iron/Tin background, I just don't see what being able to run a 8086
> derivative ISA brings to the enterprise table.
>
>
> Robert Klute,
> Who speaks for himself and not the company he works for.
>
>
>
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