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Technology Stocks : Intel Corporation (INTC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: wanna_bmw who wrote (164411)	4/22/2002 1:55:29 AM
From: tcmay	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 186894

The notion some here (Dan3) have that computer companies are going to build large ("enterprise," though I hate that neologism) computers out of x86 processors like the Hammer is bizarre. IBM is using their own 64-bit Power4 as a building block, Sun is using its own SPARC variant, H-P has PA-RISC but is migrating to IA-64, and Compaq/DEC used to have Alpha but is also migrating to IA-64 (probably even if the merger with H-P falls through). Whether these companies should be going it alone on a building block, or letting Intel do the manufacturing, is debatable. But the notion that any of these companies is going to be building fault-tolerant, transaction-oriented, robust systems on a Clawhammer is just plain silly. --Tim May

To: wanna_bmw who wrote (164411)	4/22/2002 8:34:47 AM
From: Dan3	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 186894

Re: They want a solution built for scalability and RAS, not just an x86 clone. Intel's use of a shared memory bus puts a damper on anything over 2 processors. Anything over 4 processors isn't really worth the trouble. The linked node architecture and number of memory busses that scales with the number CPUs puts Hammer in whole different league when it comes to scalability. Did you notice that Microsoft is adding memory locality logic to Windows 64? That doesn't do anything for Itanium, with its single memory path to 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, or 64 processors. An 8 way hammer system with memory locality enhanced Windows 64 will dominate any Itanium system whether it has 8, 16, 32, or 64 processors. A 4 way Hammer system will usually beat an 8 way hammer system. Now compare the pricing (hardware and software) of a 4 way system vs. an 8 way system. Server buyers don't worry much about initial hardware costs, but 20K vs. 100K generally gets a second glance, followed by a review, followed by....