Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 5th May 2009 21:06 UTC
This morning, the Itanium Solutions Alliance put out a statement with some vague numbers showing the strength of the Itanium server platform in 2008. By IDC's reckoning of the server space in the fourth quarter, shipments of Itanium-based machines rose by 18 per cent and it was the seventh straight quarter of sales that crested above $1bn for the Itanium server category. Data from Gartner's report covering 2008's server sales indicated that Itanium machines outgrew RISC-based alternatives in terms of sales and shipments, growing share in each category.
Thread beginning with comment 362002
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
RE: Itanium is still around?
by Hypnos on Wed 6th May 2009 07:47
in reply to "Itanium is still around?"
Member since:2008-11-19
(I do not work in the industry, so experts should correct me if I'm wrong.)
Itanium basically took over the space previously occupied by Alpha: little-endian, RISC-based CPU designed from the ground up for 64-bit mathematical operations and memory addressing. Windows and OpenVMS run on it just like they continue to run on Alpha.
It is a clean architecture which in *theory* can deliver exceptional performance on a variety of workloads, by having the compiler sequence and package up to six instructions per cycle. Unfortunately, the compilers never got good enough to fully exploit this instruction parallelization.
Now, Itanium is stuck in the same restricted market as Alpha -- turn-key enterprise serving and scientific number crunching -- while x86-64 takes over the general server market because it supports the legacy x86-32 architecture and makes no special demands of compilers.
Edited 2009-05-06 08:06 UTC
RE[2]: Itanium is still around?
by meeh on Wed 6th May 2009 09:04
in reply to "RE: Itanium is still around?"
Member since:2009-01-19
So they went from 100 to 118 units sold ?
Joke aside, the architecture seemed very promising , I recommend reading anandtechs article about the architecture.
The enterprise world however need backwards compatibility for its software stacks. Im not talking about cute flashy sites or clever company x, Itaniums are just to expensive for massive webclusters even if you do get mainstream software like win 2008.
And they dont have the pedigre like POWER or s/390 or sparc to make it which they belong the midrange to highend enterprise like Banks.
(im sure that they would absolutely kill any sparc performance wise, but thats besides the point)
Im almost impressed that they havent killed the arch yet.
RE[2]: Itanium is still around?
by Vanders on Wed 6th May 2009 09:08
in reply to "RE: Itanium is still around?"
Member since:2005-07-06
Now, Itanium is stuck in the same restricted market as Alpha...scientific number crunching -- while x86-64 takes over the general server market
You'd be surprised. There are only 9 IA-64 clusters in the Top500, none of which are in the top 10. There are two "pure" Opteron systems, one at #6 and the other at #10. The #1 cluster also uses Opterons.
Why? Because the price/performance and performance/watt of Itanium is awful.
RE[2]: Itanium is still around?
by renox on Wed 6th May 2009 19:03
in reply to "RE: Itanium is still around?"
Member since:2005-07-06
Itanium basically took over the space previously occupied by Alpha: little-endian, RISC-based CPU designed from the ground up for 64-bit mathematical operations and memory addressing.
The Alpha was in fact bi-endian, and the normal load/store instructions (the one which used less cycles) were the big endian one if memory serves (the cycle cost for little endian was small though)
[Itanium] is a clean architecture
I wouldn't call an architecture designed for an 'imaginary super-compilers' clean..
Features
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 21:33 UTC
Why does Google get so much credit in the technology industry? Why, despite the company's many obvious failings, do many geeks and enthusiasts still hold a somewhat positive view on the all-knowing technology giant? A specific talk at Google I/O this week provides the answer.
Linked by David Adams on 05/16/13 4:23 UTC
OSNews is a sponsor of this year's O'Reilly OSCON in Portland, Oregon, USA. A lucky OSNews reader will win a free three-day pass, including two tutorials days. To win the pass, post a comment on this story saying something about Open Source Software or OSCON. We'll pick a winner at random next week. If you don't have an OSNews account, you may email us your entry. Part of the conference is the 9th annual Open Source Awards, and today the 16th is the deadline for nominations. If you'd like to nominate an outstanding open source contributor, do it here. Read on for more information about OSCON. Update: The 20% discount code for OSNews readers is "OSN."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/11/13 21:41 UTC
"Windows is indeed slower than other operating systems in many scenarios, and the gap is worsening." That's one way to start an insider explanation of why Windows' performance isn't up to snuff. Written by someone who actually contributes code to the Windows NT kernel, the comment on Hacker News, later deleted but reposted with permission on Marc Bevand's blog, paints a very dreary picture of the state of Windows development. The root issue? Think of how Linux is developed, and you'll know the answer.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/08/13 14:22 UTC
This is one of those news items that's fun to write, fun to read, fun to comment on, and where no one will be able to say anything unkind. It's all just one big ball of awesome fluffiness. TuneTracker, the BeOS radio automation software, has just released something very special: TuneTracker System 5, the first version designed entirely and specifically for Haiku. In fact, it actually includes Haiku in the software package. Better yet, TuneTracker also unveiled several system-in-a-box products - which have Haiku and TuneTracker pre-installed.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/02/13 15:28 UTC
Exactly twenty years ago, a document was published that played a huge role in establishing the web as we know it today. Twenty years later, and this simple and straightforward document is proof of an irrefutable fact: while closed technologies can change markets, open technologies can change the world.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/29/13 21:06 UTC
Oh multitasking. That staple of computing that got thrown out the window with many modern smartphones. We got some rudimentary thing in its place - but even as multitasking on phone and tablets improves, its user-visible side remains cumbersome. Windows 8 has a neat implementation, and now it's time Android follows in it footsteps.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/24/13 22:24 UTC
They're here! Whether that excites you or not remains to be seen, but the Galaxy S4, which will most likely become the best selling Android smartphone of the year by a huge margin, has been reviewed by all the major sites, and there's lots of interesting conclusions in there - although I think most of you will get the gist.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/18/13 11:21 UTC
Nokia has posted its quarterly results for the first quarter of 2013, and just like the quarters that came before, there's not a whole lot of good news in there. The rise in Lumia sales still can't even dream of making up for the sales drop in Symbian phones, and when broken down in versions, the sales figures for Windows Phone 8 Lumias in particular are very disappointing. In North America, Nokia is getting slaughtered.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/16/13 9:29 UTC
The day has finally come: Google has started shipping Google Glass to the lucky few early adopters. Now that it's shipping, Google has also unveiled a lot more about the API and the specifications of the device itself. While the company had already given out substantial details at earlier occasions, there are still a few surprises here.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/15/13 22:44 UTC
Almost exactly three years ago, I wrote about why OSNews was no longer OSNews: the alternative operating system scene had died, and OSNews, too, had to go with the times and move towards reporting on a new wave of operating systems - mobile, and all the repercussions that the explosion of smartphones and tablets have caused. Still, I was wondering something today: why aren't we seeing alternative operating systems on mobile?More Features »
Sponsored Links
Member since:
2007-03-29
Wow, I thought Itanium died when x86-64 launched.