Re: FW: OT: Microsoft drop more Itanic support
From: Alan Greig (greigaln_at_netscape.net)
Date: 11/10/05
- Next message: Antoniov: "Re: Request for feedback - BACKUP enhancement"
- Previous message: Dave Harrold: "Re: failSAFE IP - Looks good! Who's using it? (and why/why-not)"
- In reply to: JF Mezei: "Re: FW: OT: Microsoft drop more Itanic support"
- Next in thread: Main, Kerry: "RE: FW: OT: Microsoft drop more Itanic support"
- Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]
Date: Thu, 10 Nov 2005 15:52:02 GMT
JF Mezei wrote:
> What is probably happening here is that the Intel subsidies for Windows
> on IA64 are running out, so MS is pulling out of that platform which
> isn't strategic or making enough money for MS to bother with. In the
> end, if MS could make tons of money and grow Windows on IA64, it would
> do so and would market the hell out of that platform and not allow HP or
> Intel to spread rumours about IA64's market potential being limited only
> to super computers.
Microsoft needed Itanium to give it the scalability on paper. The top
end SAP benchmark using Windows and SQL server is still held by an HP 64
way Itanium Superdome. Ballmer pointed out that it's processing capacity
was ten times that of the largest SAP implementation in the world. The
figures just posted by IBM for the 32 way Xeon Windows system are more
than half of those for the 64-way Superdome (admittedly using DB2 in
place of SQL Server) - so, if we take Ballmer at his word...., the
32-way IBM Xeon box is over 5 times the largest real-world SAP system.
With 32 way AMD Horus likely to perform even better and 64-way in the
labs - it is clear Microsoft no longer need Itanium even for the largest
systems.
Couple this with their X64 only release of Windows Compute Cluster for
the HPC market and it's clear Microsoft see the X64 as a better bet for
High Performance Computing in the future than Itanium. Of course they
will have seen the roadmaps from Intel making it clear that X64 will
pull clearly ahead of Itanium. Or perhaps, more accurately, Intel have
been given the roadmap by Microsoft :-)
Microsoft are the largest exhibitor at next week's Supercomputing 2005.
They have three stands and will be showing Windows Compute Cluster
running on lots of SMP X86-64 boxes. Bill Gates is the keynote speaker.
> Last year, when HP and Intel started to send strong messages that IA64
> just wouldn't be "industry standard" and would have limited market
> niche, you can bet that Microsoft was already fully aware of what was
> really going on. And look at how quickly MS announced that Windows would
> support the 64 bit 8086 at about the same time.
-- Alan Greig
- Next message: Antoniov: "Re: Request for feedback - BACKUP enhancement"
- Previous message: Dave Harrold: "Re: failSAFE IP - Looks good! Who's using it? (and why/why-not)"
- In reply to: JF Mezei: "Re: FW: OT: Microsoft drop more Itanic support"
- Next in thread: Main, Kerry: "RE: FW: OT: Microsoft drop more Itanic support"
- Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]
Relevant Pages
|
