According to Gartner, computer makers have shipped 1700 Itanium based workstations and 2600 Itanium based servers this year.
While the PII Xeon sales were indeed initially slow, I don't remember them being anywhere close to being THAT slow.
Absolutely.... but if I remember though, intel took a different road on the way from 16 bit/32 bit than it's taken this time. Initially, the 32 bit instruction set was an extension of 16, not completely new 32 from the get go.
This time, things are different. Despite what most intel fans claim, I think that Itanium was always meant to be a development system. I think intel was willing to give them away, in order to seed the ground for McKinley and subsequent chips. If intel made any money on Itanium, fine, if not, fine. As long as the applications get developed.
They took a lesson from Gilette. When they invented the safety razor, they had a tough time getting men to switch over from straight razors. So they gave away the razors, to sell the blades. Eventually, almost everyone was using safety razors, and Gilette made millions.
I don't care if intel gives away Itanium..... As long as it establishes IA-64 as the priemier "blade" in town.
:-)
Semi |
