Itanium Processors

[OutHouse]

Anybody using these processors yet?

 

[Rand]

The Itanium is hardly meant to be used as a home computer, you need to look towards large corporations with server farms for those that might be using one. You definitely will not find any home user running an Itanium based system.
You'd have more luck asking if anyone here has a 64 processor Sparc cluster, or something of the like then an Itanium

 

[OutHouse]

Well im thinking of ordering a Dell 2550 dual proc system with the Itanium to replace one of my POS Data General PII Xeon servers at work.

 

[Jerboy]

<< Well im thinking of ordering a Dell 2550 dual proc system with the Itanium to replace one of my POS Data General PII Xeon servers at work. >>



Do you mean PowerEdge2550? That thing is for P3. See the link

 

[Rand]

<< Well im thinking of ordering a Dell 2550 dual proc system with the Itanium to replace one of my POS Data General PII Xeon servers at work. >>



Keep in mind you will need all new software and the 64bit version of Windows.
None of the classic X86 software you typically see wil;l run... well it'll run but it'll do so in emulation at about the speed of a 486 DX2 66MHz.

 

[OutHouse]

The Dell coporate sales guy says that Citrix will run it just fine. I will have to check this out. its a 8K purchase

 

[sandorski]

I'm not a corporate networking fella, but is anyone anywhere using Itaniums? I'd suggest talking to someone using one first(definitely not some salesperson)and I wouldn't jump on that bandwagon unless it was clearly shown to be advantageous for your needs. You wouldn't want to spend that much money to find out you are plagued with performance or compatibility problems(especially your bosses).

 

[zephyrprime]

Is the itanium even that useful for corporate types? Given it's really small base of software available for it, it doesn't look like it'd be terribly useful. Maybe if you developed your own software for it but then you could use some other platform instead. And it's clockspeed is real low too.

 

[OutHouse]

Thanks Sandorski. thats why i asked the question here. There are very many people here who work in a coporate enviroment where powerful servers are needed, but there are a few. So i thought I would throw out the question.

I have the same question posted on other forums, I will be calling our Citrix vendor monday.

Ive done a lot of research on the web about the Itanium and I'm seeing two sides. Some say yes it will work with 32 bit apps and some say it wont. Intel is one of the ones that says it will. But like you suggest I'am looking for real people with experiecne with it.

I hope the mods dont mind but i think i will post my question in the "off topic" area as well.

 

[Swanny]

The Itanium will work with 32bit code, but it won't run 32bit code. It is a 64bit only CPU, so it must run emulation software to work with 32bit stuff. As Rand said when it is running emulation to 32bit it runs between the performance of a 486DX2 66Mhz and a Pentium 75Mhz. So if you're running 32bit apps you'd actually be getting yourself an $8,000 downgrade.

 

[OutHouse]

Thanks Swanny that is the kind of imput im looking for.

Do you know of any sources that i can read about what you said?

 

[KentState]

Actually this site had a couple articles and they stated that most companies which run a mixture of 32 and 64 bit programs actually use a seperate 32-bit processor with the Itanium. AMD is releasing a new 64-bit CPU which will be able to run 32-bit code without any emulation. Their CPU uses registers that can run as either 64-bit or at 2 32-bit.

 

[MobiusAT]

The Itanium is a lab experiment let loose upon the unsuspecting public. It is a VLIW architecture chip -
Very Long Instruction Word. Conceptually it's a bit like you take a lot of risc-type instructions and pack
them into one long word, and execute it in parallel.

By their very nature, VLIW architectures are extremely dependent upon the compiler
used for the binary. Because the instruction words are so long, it is hugely expensive in terms of chip real
estate to build deep pipelines, and to build multiple execution paths. So your branch prediction becomes much
more difficult because your cpu isn't as scalar and your pipelines aren't as deep. Much of the optimization has
to be built into the binary by the compiler at build-time, because the runtime optimiztions the CPU can do are
limited by these factors.

As already mentioned, the cpu is 64 bit. I'm pretty sure it is not binary compatible with existing Intel binaries - and
even if it were, you wouldn't want to run anything that was performance-sensitive (read - anything other than
a text editor etc) without recompiling.

This is Intel's first 64 bit CPU, and it will be running Microsoft's first 64 bit OS. To those souls brave enough
to implement that combination for mission critical applications, best of luck. My money says that the Solaris8/UltraSparc 3
architecture from Sun will trounce Itanium Wintel boxes in terms of performance and reliability.

 

[JC]

So expensive, so 'iffy', so few....should be called "Unobtainium"

 

[Diable]

<< Actually this site had a couple articles and they stated that most companies which run a mixture of 32 and 64 bit programs actually use a seperate 32-bit processor with the Itanium. AMD is releasing a new 64-bit CPU which will be able to run 32-bit code without any emulation. Their CPU uses registers that can run as either 64-bit or at 2 32-bit. >>



The problem with AMD's Hammer chips are they can't run any of the few 64bit apps that are currently available like Windows or Linux because there not compatible with Intels 64bit ISA.

 

[AGodspeed]

The problem with AMD's Hammer chips are they can't run any of the few 64bit apps that are currently available like Windows or Linux because there not compatible with Intels 64bit ISA.

Actually you nor anyone else (except AMD engineers) know if Hammer is compatible with Intel's 64-bit ISA. The way AMD sees it (and I agree with AMD on this issue) is that they can't compete with Intel if they were to develop their own processor based heavily on complier optimizations because Intel has way too much support behind them. Therefore, AMD creates a processor that can run both 32 and 64 bit applications very well (supposedly Hammer will be able to do this). Therefore, Hammer is supposed to be not nearly as dependent on complier code as Intel's IA-64 architecture, which means that AMD doesn't have to stress about Hammer being able to run all types of 32 and 64 bit applications.

Also, what makes you think AMD won't include a compatible 64 bit ISA in the Hammer line of processors?

 

[Diable]

AMD's Hammer chips will use a 64bit extension of the standard 32bit x86 ISA used in processors now. Intel's Itanium chips on the other hand uses a completly different ISA called EPIC. So unless the Hammer line can run EPIC code in emulation it can't run currently avalible 64bit apps which are all written for the Intel chips.