AMD set to steal Itanium's thunder
Today's focus: AMD set to steal Itanium's thunder
> By Deni Connor
>
> AMD appears set to make some headway with its Opteron chipset
> when it launches the first half of next year.
>
> The 64-bit chipset, which will run 32-bit applications equally
> as well, received approving nods from such industry heavyweight
> leaders as Michael Dell, Bill Gates and Scott McNealy, as a
> replacement for Intel's two-year late Itanium processor.
>
> Earlier this year at Merrill Lynch's Hardware Heaven conference
> Michael Dell boosted AMD's chances in the server marketplace by
> saying that his company was very interested and looking at
> Opteron.
>
> Sun also is rumored to be interested in using AMD's Opteron
> processor for the multiprocessor computers it will manufacture.
> And Microsoft has planned extensions to Windows that would
> allow it to run on 64-bit platforms.
>
> Opteron, also dubbed SledgeHammer, is a one- to eight-way
> processor that will ship in the first half of 2003. It succeeds
> the AMD Clawhammer, the first processor with x86-64 technology,
> which will ship in the second half of this year.
>
> x86-64 is a native 64-bit technology that supports both 32- and
> 64-bit applications without performance or feature compromises.
> AMD says that its Hammer platform with debut at speeds as great
> as 2 GHz.
>
> Users polled by Network World on the HP/Compaq acquisition told
> us that they wanted to see an alternative to Itanium. While
> most of them would have preferred that that alternative was the
> Alpha processors, several mentioned AMD's Opteron or an
> unofficial project Intel is rumored to have called Yamhill,
> which uses x86-64 bit technology.
>
> At least one company, Newisys, is known to be using AMD's
> Opteron chipset. Newisys, located in Austin, Texas, is made up
> primarily of former IBM engineers, and is developing 64-bit
> servers for Windows 2000 and Linux. It is making single- and
> two-way symmetrical multiprocessing servers through 8-way
> servers. Newisys is funded by AMD and Austin Ventures, as well
> as some private investors.
>
> _______________________________________________________________
> To contact Deni Connor:
>
> Deni Connor is a senior editor at Network World covering
> storage, SANs, Novell and Novell-related products. You can
> reach her at mailto:[email protected]
Well?
