Do you really believe that the transition to a different chip architecture for Wintel machines will be 'painless'? I can't imagine anything more frightening for Intel than the end of the x86 tunnel (they're almost there now, what's a RiscOp?). Why do you think people aren't buying Intel's latest and greatest, the Pentium Pro? Because, unless you are willing to buy tuned software, it's slower than a regular pentium. Look at the architecture for the P7 (Merced) - my info is that it's very long instruction word (VLIW). I'm sure that Intel has a more conventional core planned as a backup, but they are realizing that the x86 instruction set has gone as far as it can go.
I'm not saying that Intel is doomed (laughable), I'm just saying that the limits of the technology are looming on the horizon, and several million PC users suddenly needing to buy all new software for their new hardware is an interesting thought. It would either firmly plant another several billion in Andy Grove's and Bill Gates' pockets, or they would get lynched. Or maybe PC users would migrate to a different platform, as long as they had to be out of pocket, they might as well avoid rebooting every 20 minutes - eh?
MIPS and SGI, on the other hand, started with a very scalable design and stuck with it. All products are backward compatible with all others. I agree that the instruction sets of modern RISC chips (with the possible exception of the DEC 21164) are probably too rich and complex to be truly called RISC, but the foundation of a good design is there. The basic R2K can be extended for as long as you are willing to push the limits of lithography. The executable I have for my personal Iris can also run on my Onyx at work, or on my new O2.
What in the world makes you think that SUN is thinking of moving to the PowerPC? That's a real shocker to me - Motorola would really be getting the last laugh then, I know they were pissed when SUN and SGI stopped using the 68K series. |
