Is it time to wrap up the IA-64 program?
Itanium Demo Systems at 500 MHz (INTEL)
Posted By Brian Neal
Thursday, August 17, 2000 - 1:28:01 PM
Intel's 64-bit debut, Itanium, is still yielding at very low frequencies, judging from the company's recent demonstrations at Linuxworld. While SGI did show off a 733 MHz uniprocessor system, most of the Itanium machines demonstrated Tuesday were running well under the chip's 800 MHz target frequency. Intel's demos consisted of some 500 MHz dual-processor systems, while NEC showed a 16-way Itanium system built with four nodes of four processors each, powered by the company's Azusa chipset. NEC denied to disclose the clock speed of the chips in its 16-way system, but said it was "well under" 800 MHz.
Instead, Intel's LinuxWorld efforts included demonstrating 500-MHz, preproduction Itanium chips in its own booth and with SGI, which also had a system containing a 733-MHz Itanium chip, an SGI spokesman said. NEC representatives declined to comment on the clock speed of the chips in their Azusa prototype, but indicated that the clock speed was well under the expected 800-MHz threshold.
"As we got closer to product time, the task of fixing and validating the silicon ... pushed us out a quarter," said Paul Otellini, executive vice president and general manager of the Intel architecture group, last month in an earnings-related conference call with analysts. "We learned a lot in the process."
As it is now, we won't see Itanium systems until sometime next year, with Intel representatives saying they expect their customers to roll out products based upon the chip "over the first half of 2001." Obviously, the yields must be fixed, and it has been indicated that a revision to the core will be necessary to hit 800 MHz. Beyond clock speeds, Itanium is heavily dependant upon the compiler to effectively schedule code running on the chip...meaning that if current compilers aren't up to snuff, Itanium could be further hobbled by them.
First impressions are everything, as Intel can't afford to forever tarnish an architecture it has invested so heavily in with a poor initial effort. Meanwhile, we expect Sun Microsystems, who recently held a mid-quarter conference call saying demand was better than expected, to introduce its UltraSPARC III at 900 MHz sometime next month. Additionally, Compaq's Alpha is expected to be particularly strong next year, with a 1.2 GHz EV68 and next-generation EV7 chips at similar speeds. How will Intel counter this threat from established market players? Hopefully we will get some answers at the upcoming IDF
aceshardware.com
Itanium is entering a market where it is the underdog with Itanium. It will have to be faster, not slower, than the competition in order to make any headway. Look at how tough it's been for AMD's Athlon to penetrate the business market even though it is completely compatible with Pentium, and offers more MHZ per dollar. How would it have done if it had been 20% slower than the PIII, as it appears Itanium will be relative to its competition?
Dan |
