Re: Pentium vs. Itanium

"Yousuf Khan" <bbbl67@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:44bc40bc$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
***** charles wrote:
It is too bad about the Itanium. It has "some" good engineering
in it and it was supposed to last for the "next 20 years". If only
Intel could fiture out how to make them CHEAP. The biggest
problem is price that is why AMD64 and EM64T are both
blowing it out of the water.

Not really, Intel had the ability to sell it for very cheap, if it
wanted to. Initially, it could've subsidized the price of the Itaniums,
and then eventually it could've gotten the price down by simply
migrating it to its latest miniaturization process node. However,
neither option would've proved to be fruitful, as a cheap processor that
nobody wants will only sell slightly better than an expensive processor
that nobody wants.

It's major problem was, and is, and will always be it's lack of software
compatibility. If Itanium had the ability to efficiently run 32-bit x86
software like the Opteron did, then it would've been only a matter of
biding time until 64-bit applications start coming in. Opteron simply
ran existing 32-bit apps happily, while people slowly (and sometimes
speedily) ported those apps to 64-bit.

Yousuf Khan

I wish I could remember where I read an article about the transitioning
process from one arch to another since it was the writers' premise that
the ability to run old software was NOT a hurdle for the adoption of
the newer arch. The writer proposed 3 or 4 cases for his conclusion.
I think Apple was one were it has gone through 3 major transitions:
Apple II, Power and now Intel x86.

IA-64 had the ability in the beginning to run x86 software but that
ability was dropped because the demand was so low in its' customer
base, people who actually bought one.

Everyone (people, organizations, governments, etc...) is price sensative.
If it was cheaper and faster, it would sell.

It would be interesting to see what the percentages are for OS's:
Linux
Windows
and HP-UX in the existing owner space.

later,
charles.....


.

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