Question about Intel/AMD server processors...

[BigToque]

AMD has their 64bit server CPU that does 32bit as well. Intel has the 32bit Xeon and the 64bit Itanium (and Itanium 2 as well right? or is that comming).

Anyway, as I understand it (please correct me if I'm wrong), AMD's offering beats both of Intel's products in terms of performance. Is this correct?

My next question is, with Intel saying that they will be adding this 64bit "CT" to the Xeon CPU's (and eventually workstation CPU's), is there any real reason for the Itanium to even exist?

I thought that Itanium was supposed to be a great CPU, but I've just heard that there is now a very small sector for it because it wasn't as good as it was supposed to be.

I'm really interested in seeing where these companies are going to be going in the next few years...

 

[mechBgon]

~ now where'd I leave that 11-foot pole...?

Stefan, with 5300 posts around here, you must realize by now that different CPUs do different things well

At any rate, you might compare Itanium to... to... edit: thought of a better analogy ...a city bus. It's not a car, it's not a truck... it's a bus. You might be able to drive to the store in it, but that's not what it's really made to do, and you wouldn't "benchmark" it on a skidpad, a dragstrip or a road course. Now would you.

And with that thought, it's time I went to bed :moon:

 

[Soulkeeper]

well, in my opinion the opteron/hammer is wiping the floor with the xeon on performance and price/performance
not to mention the x86-64 capability

yeah the itanium has it's place tho (even tho sales are much lower than intel would like)
lots of large companies buy super computers built with several itaniums installed
the chip was designed to be a high power non-desktop 64-bit server chip
and with the intel name it will probably continue to do atleast modest in the market till it is replaced

i think there is a high probability that intel will go the whole x86-64 path for the desktop
i even heard a rumour that they have purchased the licensing rights to the technology from amd so they too can have x86-64 chips if they need to

basically the possibilities are endless and nobody knows the future tho

all i see for the next year or two is intense competition as both companies strive for marketshare in the market
new technologies will come and go

i'm enjoying it

 

[Soulkeeper]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
~ now where'd I leave that 11-foot pole...?

Stefan, with 5300 posts around here, you must realize by now that different CPUs do different things well

At any rate, you might compare Itanium to... to... how about to a combine (as in, farming equipment). It's not a car, it's not a truck, it's not even a tractor per se... it's a combine, and you might be able to drive to the store in it, but that's not what it's really made to do, and you wouldn't "benchmark" it on a skidpad, a dragstrip or a road course. Now would you.

And with that thought, it's time I went to bed :moon:

hahaha nice analogy

 

[mechBgon]

Hehe, thanks, but I thought of a little better one: city bus. It moves people like cars & trucks do, but ...oh, or maybe a trolley! :Q Dasm, I better get to bed before I think of anything crazier...

 

[BigToque]

I understand what you are saying, but what I was getting at is I thought that AMD's offering and the Xeon's are almost as effective as intels "city bus", while costing only a fraction of the price.

Or am I mistaken in this thinking, and the Itanium actually does what it was designed to do a whole lot better than AMD and the Xeon could do.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: Stefan
I understand what you are saying, but what I was getting at is I thought that AMD's offering and the Xeon's are almost as effective as intels "city bus", while costing only a fraction of the price.

Or am I mistaken in this thinking, and the Itanium actually does what it was designed to do a whole lot better than AMD and the Xeon could do.

Xeon and Opteron are x86 processors, Itanium is an EPIC processor. It can emulate x86 (slowly) but it is in its own special different universe, for better or for worse.

 

[WackyDan]

Keep in mind that the original Itanium was a disappointment..... It was never as fast as promised -Also remember that Itanium was an Intel and HP engineered proc.

What Itanium was good for in the end was as an initial development processor that would usher in the first 64bit apps for it's follow on Itanium2

Itanium2 is what the original Itanium was supposed to be and more.

I'm not sure comparing the AMD to Intel/HP offering is an even competition as I believe the Itanium2 scales differently in a large enterprise environment than the AMD does..... But maybe someone can shed more light on that.