SGI's asic's turn processors into supercomputers. Software makes clusters of computers. No one links anything like SGI has linked Itaniums.
Do SGI sales folks have a clue? Or are there not enough problem solving requirements for SGI products. Those are possible negatives for SGI.
Some positives.
Intel spent billions and billions on Itanium. 10 thousand a quarter being sold and 500 are SGI. Intel wants SGI to do much better than very well. SGI no longer looks like quite the financial basket case. Refinance and stock at 3 or so this five minutes.
SELinux is important in making linux much more acceptable in
commercial enterprise application space. Nothing scales like an SGI.
But opterons are 64 bit and are much cheaper than Itaniums. In 1 to several processor space can they be more cost effective than Itanium based solutions...
operon vs G5 barefeats.com
But where is the future going...
Duel of the Titans: Opteron vs. Xeon 64 bit vs semi commodity 32bit processors
Duel of the Titans: Opteron vs. Xeon Created:
April 22, 2003 By:Frank Völkel Thomas Pabst Bert Töpelt
Mirko Dölle
Category: Processors
Summary:
The benchmarks (MySQL, Whetstone, ARC 2D, NPB, etc.) show quite clearly that the Dual Opteron puts the Dual Xeon in its place, especially in the server disciplines. In the workstation tests, however, the Dual Xeon has the lead.
With desktop applications, 2 GB is usually rather sufficient, especially since operating systems such as Windows XP only allow 2 GB for applications in the logical address space.
Typical applications that are based on 64-bit technology are large databases and complicated CAD programs. One of the benefits of 64-bit architecture for commercial applications lies in the direct use of a large address space. While the standard 32-bit system can address up to 4 GB, with 64-bit you can access up to 16 TB, at least. Large databases can already reach sizes of far beyond 4 GB today.
In order to break the 4 GB barrier on 32-bit system as well, Windows 2000/XP use a few tricks. With the help of the Physical Address Extension (PAE) as well as Enterprise Memory Architecture Windows 2000/XP can allow applications to address up to 8 GB (Advanced Server) or even 64 GB of physical memory (Data Center Server). However, these solutions are not very fast, as they use a technique similar to what some of you might remember from the good old 16-bit days, called 'EMS-memory'. On top of that, 64 GB is the final limit for 32-bit processors. Applications that require quick access to databases larger than 4 GB or access to databases larger than 64 GB cannot do without 64-bit systems.
SuSE Linux Enterprise Server - here, in the official x86-32 version. The 64-bit variant is not yet final - we used a "Gold Master."
The business environment is growing, so more and more companies are depending on central computer systems that work with powerful databases and huge quantities of data. Some examples are CRM and billing systems from telecommunications companies, and high-speed Web servers. In all of these cases, the switch to 64-bit technology will ensure significantly better scalability.
from.....
tomshardware.com
Suse does 64 bit linux for opterons. Suse is now an American company by the way.
Suse I believe has been working with more international security conscious types than redhat at this point. |
