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Focus on Itanium Linux
Intel, HP post an IA-64 Linux Simulator, part of a software developer's kit available for free on the Web.
By Ken Popovich, eWEEK
UPDATED June 13, 2000 8:37 AM PT
Looking to fuel development of Linux-based applications for its upcoming 64-bit Itanium processor, Intel Corp. on Tuesday teamed with Hewlett-Packard Co. to post an IA-64 Linux Simulator, part of a software developer's kit available for free on the Web.
The IA-64 Linux Simulator was developed by HP (NYSE: HWP) to enable developers to emulate the functionality of a Linux-based Itanium-powered machine using systems running currently available Pentium -- or IA-32 -- processors.
The release of the development kit to the open-source community is the latest in a series of high-profile steps Intel has taken to assure software support for its newest processor, which will feature a new architecture called EPIC, or Explicitly Parallel Instruction Computing, that was developed by HP.
Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) has high hopes that the Itanium will eventually come to dominate the server market, hailing it as the most significant new development in microprocessor architecture since the 386 processor was introduced in 1985.
Ready by end of year
The first IA-64 chips are scheduled to go into full production in the third quarter and should begin shipping in server and workstation systems later in the year.
Since December, Intel has shipped more than 4,000 IA-64 prototype systems to application and operating system developers. Last month, the Santa Clara, Calif., company posted full details on how the chip operates on the company's Web site.
Linux support seen as critical
While several major OS vendors have already announced support for the new chip -- including Microsoft Corp. (64-bit Windows), HP (HP-UX), IBM (Monterey64) and Novell Inc. (Modesto) -- the availability of Linux-based applications is seen as crucial to the chip's success.
"To get to the open-source community, which is very diverse and worldwide, you really need to have this kind of simulator, which allows them to do a lot of their testing up front," said Jason Waxman, Intel's marketing manager for the IA-64. "This helps make it much more pervasive."
HP likewise emphasized its desire to get information out to the open-source community.
"Broad availability of Linux applications is an important component of HP's Itanium processor-based server and workstation environment," said Mike Balma, director of marketing for HP's Open Source and Linux Operation.
The IA-64 Linux developer's kit is available for download on Intel's hosted site at developer.intel.com and on an HP-hosted site at www.software.hp.com/ia64linux.
What's inside
The developer's kit basically contains three pieces, Balma said.
"One piece is the Linux kernel that was released earlier this year," he said. "The other piece is something that we call a new environment that takes a number of open-source pieces and integrates them with the third piece, the IA-64 Linux simulator, which HP Labs developed."
Although Intel will produce and market the Itanium, previously known by the code name Merced, HP was the original developer of the EPIC architecture and joined up with Intel to design the chip in 1994.
In recent years, HP's role in development of the chip has been unclear, although the company has announced it plans to eventually migrate all its servers to the IA-64 architecture.
"There have been a number of things that we've done along the way" to help develop the IA-64, Balma said. Asked whether HP will take on a more prominent role in the marketing of Itanium, he replied, "Certainly as the product gets closer to the market, and there's actually a product to sell, we'll be very visible in terms of communicating to our customers what we have to offer."
In addition to the software, the developer's kit contains documentation about Itanium as well as links to software libraries containing additional details on the chip.
Even before the release of the kit today, Itanium has already received strong support among Linux developers.
Corporate-based efforts to support IA-64 Linux comes in large part from the Trillian Project, which was founded last year. In addition to Intel and HP, the group is made up of Caldera Systems Inc., CERN, IBM, Red Hat Inc., SGI, SuSE, TurboLinux and VA Linux Systems.
In February, the group released a beta version of the Linux kernel to the open-source community. Last month, Red Hat released an alpha version of a complete IA-64 Linux distribution to developers. The Red Hat release marked the first alpha public code release of a full IA-64 Linux from kernel to drivers for such popular applications as Apache.
Intel claims Itanium's EPIC architecture offers considerable performance-enhancing features over the more widely used RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) and CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computing) architectures. Company officials claim the new architecture pairs massive processing resources with intelligent compilers to make parallel execution explicit to the processor
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