Posted on 09/12/2002 7:46:24 AM PDT by JameRetief
Intel Rubbishes AMD's Hybrid Plans
DATE: 09/12/2002
The head of Intel Corp's server chip division rubbished AMD's 32/64-bit hybrid
processor proposition yesterday, saying that if it's such a good idea, why
hasn't anyone done it before?
Mike Fister, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's enterprise,
speaking after a keynote speech at the vendor's developer forum in San Jose,
questioned the logic of supporting both 64-bit and 32-bit computing on the same
processor. Advanced Micro Devices Inc is pushing its hybrid approach as a way
for corporations to smooth their transition from legacy 32-bit applications to
64-bit computing.
Fister said performance issues meant it was questionable whether many customers
would find much use in such an approach. "There's maybe a splinter where it
could have some value." he said. "[But] the end point where our customers have
got to get to is 64-bit."
Making the shift to 64-bit is a massive undertaking for any vendor to do, he
said, even without trying to straddle 32-bit computing as well. "If it's so
easy to do, you'd think it wouldn't have taken us so long to get to Itanium."
Meanwhile, Intel said it would keep the Itanium 2 branding for its next brace
of 64-bit processors. Madison, which represents the shift of the Itanium
architecture to a 0.13 micron manufacturing process and which features a 6MB
cache, will ship next summer, said product manager Michael Graf.
Deerfield, a lower power version of Itanium, is due to ship some time after,
but before the end of 2003. Intel says the next generation of Itanium will
offer a 1.3 to 1.5 times performance improvement over the current line.
Graf said the rollout of Madison and Deerfield will follow a similar pattern to
the earlier Itaniums, with long evaluation periods by both OEMs and customers.
"It's an artefact of the high end space," he said.
© Computer Business Review Online 2002
Maybe Intel has fallen slightly behind the curve?
64-bit XP and Linux are running great.
Intel is shaking in their boots. Not having to port everything over to 64-bit all at once will save companies trillions and allow a much less hectic upgrade path. We've also got one hell of a set of software tools coming up for developers that should cut porting and testing for 64-bit apps to a fraction.
Quake, quiver, and bluster. Intels in trouble.
So its no fantasy and mirrors!
However, if these babies run any hotter than my XP 2000+ they are going to have to come with their own water cooler heat sink!!
Already out there. I forget the name of the manufacturer, but I've seen a case with water cooling. Well, its not actually water but a non-conductive liquid coolant. It has tubing going to processor, memory, and power supply (I think) and maybe to a harddrive bay, with two fans on top of the case (tower design). It is extremely quiet! Pretty cool (no pun intended) design. It will run you around $200 though.
Well, that's right. I know a bunch of you guys are scoffers, but it's true. He is talking about powered flight, right?
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