Re: So you expect SludgeHummer to be shipping in evaluation...
Paul,
Your missing a very big factor: It isn't just the CPU that's important. A competitive system needs a high performance bus and memory subsystem - each of which are quite difficult to build (see: 820/840 and RIMMS)
AMD may be a few months behind in shipping its 64 bit CPU, but since it doesn't suffer from NIH (not invented here) syndrome, it's years ahead in its chipset/bus - because it has licensed the Alpha EV6 technology from Compaq/DIGITAL.
AMD has a proven, multiprocessor, high performance, point to point architecture bus with years of development ready for Sledgehammer. And it had the foresight to design for DDR DRAM from the beginning, instead of falling for Rambus, then having to go back and start from scratch when it became clear that Rambus wasn't the best approach. And Itanium will hit the market on a version 1.0 bus architecture (although, since Merced is several years late, there has been lots of time to develop its chipset - in simulation, at least).
And AMD has a perfect solution for the traditional X86 server market - while Itanium has been targeting the high end, $100,000 and above market. Sledgehammer's competition is Coppermine on single, dual, and Profusion based servers, not Itanium. AMD is happy to see Intel iAPX432 itself into an Itanium hole while the no longer exciting small and midrange market goes underserved - except by AMD.
Dan |
