Intel's New Technology: The Itanium 2
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Keywords
Itanium 2 processor, microprocessors, high-end enterprise, business intelligence, databases, enterprise resource planning, SCM, computing, computer-aided engineering
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Competition Contd...
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AMD has other reasons for optimism. Microsoft has committed itself to making a version of its Windows Server and Windows XP desktop software for the new AMD chips. The software giant believes that many of its customers were very interested in the AMD implementation. Microsoft has plans to start shipping a version of Windows for AMD's 64-bit chips. When Microsoft ran applications written for 32-bit chips on an Opteron server loaded with the new Windows 64-bit operating system, the programs performed considerably better than on using 32-bit Windows. Microsoft's new operating system allows any application to reach deeper into memory. It thought that programs written especially for 64 bits got further performance advantages. And it is not willing to place all its bets just on Itanium 2. Besides, AMD has been much faster in launching the consumer version of Opteron chips than Intel. The leading Linux software maker, Red Hat offered Linux for the Opteron. IBM created a compatible version of its heavy-duty DB2 database software. IBM also has customers who were already using the technology, in beta [test] form, and they were looking to go to deployment by early 2003. |
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A handful of specialized server makers, like Angstrom Microsystems has signed on to use Opteron, AMD has also sold Opteron-based evaluation units to customers such as the Hollywood special effects house Pixar Animation Studios (producers of the ‘'Toy Story'' movies). With their ability to manage vast amounts of data, the Opteron-based systems could help Pixar produce its computer-generated movies faster and cheaper. However, till late 2002 the top-tier computer makers, such as Dell and HP had not announced plans to build Opteron-based machines. Intel believed that it has a significant competitive advantage due to its longstanding relationships with software and hardware makers.
Meanwhile, Sun is trying to open up its Solaris products to other architectures. Sun is looking at using Opterons in some of its blade servers6 . The option would pit Opteron against Sun's UltraSPARC processors, making them vulnerable to losses in sales and benchmarking criticisms. Still, Sun seemed confident that it could pull it off. Sun's vice president John Loiacono said7:
" Are we likely to use Opteron today? Yes"
6] A single circuit board populated with components such as processors, memory, and network connections that are usually found on multiple boards. Server blades are designed to slide into existing servers. Server blades are more cost-efficient, smaller and consume less power than traditional box-based servers.
7] Source: Sun to Use AMD in its Blade Servers, www.internews.com, February 24, 2003.