Dell Drops Itanium Workstation

[AGodspeed]

http://www.aceshardware.com/#55000420

 

[NFS4]

MEOUCH!

 

[Adul]

ouch.

 

[Gunbuster]

maybe some will turn up in hot deals for cheap, might be fun to play with

 

[Rand]

<< maybe some will turn up in hot deals for cheap, might be fun to play with >>




I hope you have an extremely pricey definition of 'cheap'

 

[NFS4]

I guess that AMD isn't the only one that can get dropped by OEM's:Q

 

[grifterspawn]

Soon dell will drop all intel and move solely to the VIA C3 processor!!! muah ha hah a hah a ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!!

 

[Sohcan]

Paul DeMone's comments sum this up nicely (keep in mind that Paul DeMone is of the Alpha camp of CPU architecture, and has been highly critical of IA64):


<<
Dell is a low cost, high volume supplier of hardware. It has long been recognized
that Itanium/Merced slipped so much it would have little attraction other than as
a software development platform for ISVs. The surprise isn't Dell dropped it but
rather that they put any effort into IA64 at all before McKinley, the first IA64
part with any chance of commercial success and volume sales.
Another factor: Itanium is also a first generation of a new ISA that represents a
major platform shift for all perspective buyers. That means whatever Itanium
purchases are made will likely be through full service hardware providers like
HP, Compaq, and IBM who have the support people who can hold customer
hands and help them with the inevitable H/W and S/W issues that crop up. If
I had to buy an Itanium system it would be through Compaq, not Dell. They are
the only vendor that shook Itanium down hard enough to find the infamous MP
bug sighting that was recently fixed through BIOS changes.

Dell dropping Itanium is not the first sign of the IA64 apocalypse no matter how
hard certain groups of enthusiasts wish it was. IA64 will live or die depending on
how competitive the McKinley and its 0.13 um derivatives are compared to its ever
shrinking group of high end 64 bit competitors. McKinley has always had the grudging
respect of the competing MPU designers, even those who laughed at Merced. What
has been disclosed in the last six months has done little to suggest their cautious
respect was misplaced. >>

 

[AGodspeed]

So what was the underlying reason for releasing Itanium to these OEMs?

I'm guessing it was to make them more familar with how IA-64, in general, would work software wise (EPIC). But I don't know anything about programming so...

 

[Athlon4all]

Youch! Let another chapter in the on-going drama known as IA-64.

 

[dullard]

I have been looking closely at the Dell workstations this year. Not once did Dell allow you to customize the Itanium workstations. You couldn't even see a price of a standard configuration. Sure if you called them you might have eventually gotten through their phone system - but I wasn't about to wait 10 hours on hold just for my curiosity. I'm not at all shocked that Dell droped a machine that Dell wouldn't let anyone order.

I'm in one of the rare fields (computational fluid dynamics) where 64 bit software is already available, however I was fully aware that the price on the Itanium wasn't worth the small performance gain I might have gotten. Everyone I know and the CFD online forums all felt the same way. It would have to be double the speed to make the price worthwhile... Although we are willing to spend $10k-$100k per computer.

 

[yourharddrive]

d@mn

 

[Bluga]

ouch.

 

[Pabster]

Well, bloody hell. They'll need something to replace them. How about some dual-AMD workhorses?