Paul,
As I understand, IA-64 involved a lot of software development (compiler, etc) at Intel. I think the software is equally valuable as the Merced chips. So, my question to you is, how much revenue will Intel get from the software once the Merced chip is out? Or, is Intel giving out the software (compiler stuff) for free just to prompt the hardware (the chip)?
I assume Intel want to control the Merced platform, then it is very important for Intel to control the software part, too. With almost all the major operating systems planned For Merced, there is probably no need to Intel to work on that. However, as you said the success of Merced platform is gated by the application, I think Intel should lead or even dominate Merced application through co-development, etc. There will be more (much more) money to be made from Merced software than the chip itself. |
