Rob, the whole picture is much more complicated than the one-sided portrait that you paint for Alpha. In this post, I'll cover only the issue of software migration from IA-32 to IA-64. Hope you'll forgive me for dodging the other issues because discussing them could take up several more paragraphs.
The big problem with the migration to IA-64 is inertia. Without the hardware IA-32 translation, moving from IA-32 to IA-64 is no easier than moving, say, from IA-32 to Alpha. And Alpha already has the lead in this case. But because Merced throws in IA-32 compatibility, the transition will be a lot easier because no one will have to throw away the existing software base that is out there.
But why should IA-32 compatibility matter, if performance isn't going to be too hot? After all, if all you want to run is IA-32 programs, what's the point of buying Merced if we already have a well-established Xeon platform? Well, the hope is that the critical apps like database management, web servers, engineering CAD tools, and other CPU-crunching programs will be the first to make the transition to IA-64. They're the real programs that we all care about when it comes to Spec benchmark scores. The other apps that aren't performance-critical like e-mail servers, Samba, network card drivers, etc., won't need to be ported to IA-64 immediately. (Actually, I don't know about the drivers, but I'm sure you get the point.) Same thing goes with desktop applications like Microsoft Office, Netscape, and games. In other words, the bulk of the effort is concentrated on porting the real heavy-duty apps from IA-32 to IA-64. The rest can wait, particularly since IA-32 isn't going to die off any time soon.
How well will this transition work? Hard to say, since supporting both IA-32 and IA-64 is dependent on the OS. We all know just how SUPERB a job Microsoft does with their operating systems. At least there'll be other OS's like Solaris, Linux, and SCO. And how well will IA-32 compatibility be accepted in the market? That's also hard to tell, but supposedly the Tier 1 guys like Dell, NEC, and even Compaq like the idea.
Any questions?
Tenchusatsu |
