You have access to ITanium performance data ?
That makes you the first - please POST THESE results - or a URL - for the rest of us to see.
Alright Paul, I was speaking off the cuff. But nevertheless my opinion was a conservative one, and here is are the links to back it up.
First, it would be optimistic to assume that Itanium will run x86 code the same as the P3, clock for clock:
google.com
"Locally catastrophic is that IA-64's x86 emulation is not in a separate unit (as the
Register predicted, and as a wiser architect would have done it) but spread thinly
across the whole machine. It seems unlikely that an IA-64 machine will come close to
equalling the performance/MHz of Pentium-Pro's many descendants - and that surely
is a key feature for success.
Secondly Itanium right now is running at 500MHz at demos, and it will be very generous to assume that it will make it to 800MHz, considering that the most recent releases I have read say that it is a 0.25 only chip.
theregister.co.uk
Remember that the Itanic will be produced on a .25 micron process, and that McKinley, Intel has said, will become available towards the end of next year and will use .13 micron technology. Remember, also, that before Barrett took a plane to Stockholm, he cut the ribbon and announced a $2 billion expansion of his firm's Leixlip, Ireland fab. That, like the fab in Albuquerque, New Mexico, will move to .13 micron technology.
The alpha 500 will emulate a pentium pro 200 (note this is a full speed 256 cache, like the coppermine)
digital.com
The DIGITAL FX!32 software product uniquely combines emulation and binary translation to
enable any 32-bit application that executes on an Intel x86 microprocessor running the Windows
NT 4.0 operating system to be installed and to execute on an Alpha microprocessor running
Windows NT 4.0. Benchmark tests indicate that after translation, x86 applications run as fast on a
500-MHz Alpha system with DIGITAL FX!32 software installed as on a 200-MHz Pentium Pro
system. The emulator and its associated run-time software provide transparent execution of
applications written for x86-based platforms. The emulator produces profile data that is used by
the translator and takes advantage of translation results as they become available. The translator
provides native Alpha code for the portions of an x86 application that have previously been
executed. A server manages the translation process for the user, making the process completely
transparent.
furthermore the Alpha is expected to come out around 1GHz at the end of the year:
theregister.co.uk
Compaq has also started sampling EV68 parts although clock speeds of both its and its partner Samsung have so far only reached a max of 940MHz.
Many had anticipated that Compaq would be able to release 1GHz Alpha parts this month or early next, and there is some slippage on the development of these designs.
A 1GHz Alpha is not expected now to be available until the end of this year, although the relevance of megahertz to the platform is not particularly significant.
However, IBM, which is now fabbing Alpha microprocessors, as first revealed here in February last year, appears to be getting good clock speeds even from a 0.25 micron process technology.
The introduction of IBM's copper technology has, it appears, caused other delays. EV7 technology is now slated to appear in Q1 2001 but will intro at over 1.1GHz, the sources said. EV8 is likely to appear in Q1 2002.
Thus: A 1Ghz Alpha will have the x86 ability of a 400MHz coppermine. To be generous, Itanium 600MHz will be around 600MHz coppermine.
So there you go. |
