Skip to content

antipaucity

fighting the lack of good ideas

how intel could save itanium

Posted on 19 September 2011 By antipaucity

It’s not news that the Itanium processor is doomed in its current incarnations. Microsoft has dropped support, as has Red Hat – meaning only HP supports it with an active platform in the US (with HPUX).

The Itanim should have been Intel’s chance to totally walk away with the processor market – but they blew it by totally breaking x86 compatibility, and not in a good way: their bungle allowed AMD to develop the x86-64 extensions that are now ubiquitous – even on Intel’s own processors (though they call them EMD64).

With the multi-core industry in full swing, Intel has a chance to make the Itanium relevant once again – package it along side x86-64 cores in a new CPU, a la IBM’s Cell processor.

With Microsoft now looking to branch Windows onto ARM with Windows 8, the x86 architecture is no longer the only [major] game in town.

If Intel were to co-package the Itanium and x86 cores on one chip, or at least in one package, they could start to reap the benefits of both worlds – keep the high-end, “mission critical” market they have that lives on HPUX (though “mission critical” and “HPUX” don’t jive in my head), and bring into that realm the x86 world.

Hey, it’s a thought.

commentary, ideas, technical

Post navigation

Previous Post: ogsh/ogfs for fun and profit
Next Post: technical career development

More Related Articles

replace the restaturant buzzer food
comment to rush commentary
please stay home next week tuesday commentary
automation {gp} history
nasa searching for new challenges hmmm
now this looks pretty cool cool
September 2011
S M T W T F S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
252627282930  
« Aug   Oct »
  • Patrick Henry 23 March 1775
  • Reincarnation by Wallace McCrae (adapted by Warren Myers)
  • Famed was Beowulf
  • Fuzzy Wuzzy (anonymous)
  • One bright morning in the middle of the night (various)

Books

  • Debugging and Supporting Software Systems
  • Storage Series

External

  • Backblaze
  • Cirkul
  • Digital Ocean
  • Fundrise
  • Great Big Purple Sign
  • Password Generator
  • PayPal
  • Tech News Channel on Telegram
  • Wish List

Other Blogs

  • Abiding in Hesed
  • Chris Agocs
  • Eric Hydrick
  • Jay Loden
  • Paragraph
  • skh:tec
  • Tech News Channel on Telegram
  • Veritas Equitas

Profiles

  • LinkedIn
  • Server Fault
  • Stack Overflow
  • Super User
  • Telegram
  • Twitter

Resume

  • LinkedIn
  • Resume (PDF)

Services

  • Datente
  • IP check
  • Password Generator
  • Tech News Channel on Telegram

Support

  • Backblaze
  • Built Bar
  • Cirkul
  • Digital Ocean
  • Donations
  • Fundrise
  • PayPal
  • Robinhood
  • Wish List

Copyright © 2023 antipaucity.

Powered by PressBook Green WordPress theme