Intel Investors - Re: Merced and Unix OS Availability
SCO has made the following announcement in conjunction with Intel's Merced disclosure today at the Microprocessor Forum.
The significance of this should be comprehended. SCO has been using a Merced software simulator written by Intel, and obviously has been using this for quite a while, since their 64 Bit UNIX has been written and has BEEN RUNNING on this simulator for six months!
What this tells us is that Intel's Merced architecture has been defined and "frozen" quite a long time ago, software simulators were written to simulate the architecture, debug of the simulators was completed along with circuit verification, the simulators were released successfully to Intel's Merced "partners", the partners have been writing operating system software that is NOW running on the simulators, etc., etc.
To summarize, Intel & HP are pretty far down the road with this project. Once the architecture has been shown to function, via simulators (and possibly hardware emulation as well, via QuickTurn Emulators), Intel can begin detailed layout of the device. This must have begun at least 4 or 5 months ago.
With the schedules Intel has been discussing, I would expect tape out to be no later than Q1 of 1998, assuming the 0.18 micron process is in "reasonable" shape for complete run processing.
That gives Intel about 9 months to verify circuit operation and fibne tune the device as well as complete the development of the 0.18 micron process.
This is clearly not an academic exercise!
Paul
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biz.yahoo.com
Company Press Release
SCO's 64-Bit UnixWare Development on Track With Release of
Intel's Merced(TM) Processor
Successfully Runs on Intel's IA-64 Software Level Simulator, Completing Key Phase for 64-bit Version of Leading UNIX System
SCO (Nasdaq:SCOC - news) today announced that an initial version of a 64-bit SCO UnixWare system has been successfully running 64-bit test applications on a simulated environment for the past six months, completing a key phase of its ongoing 64-bit UnixWare product development for the next-generation Intel processor which will be available in 1999. |
