BYTE.com > Advanced Software and Technologies > 2004
The Computing Landscape Has Changed
By Bill Nicholls
April 26, 2004
(The Computing Landscape Has Changed
: Page 1 of 1 )
The computer industry looked pretty predictable six months ago.
Since then there have been surprises in processors and technology
that have changed the whole playing field. These unexpected events
involve almost all of the major players in processors and systems.
The largest changes have happened to Intel, the world's biggest
processor maker. Intel was set to bring its new 90 nanometer Prescott chips
into the market and had updated Itanium chips in the queue.
AMD's Opteron chips were then becoming a major challenge for Intel, as
they were both powerful and offered 64-bit extensions while still
running 32-bit code very well. When Intel's prime partner with Itanium,
HP, brought Opteron systems to market, Intel announced it would
supply 64-bit capability "when the customers needed it."
That's when things got interesting. The 90 nm Prescott chips hit the
performance web sites with unimpressive marks, some slower than the
existing 130 nm Northwood Pentium processors. Worse, the Prescott had
a current leakage problem that caused them to use more power and
require better cooling to just match the Northwood's performance.
On the Itanium side, IBM is taking its Power processor architecture to
levels that are very competitive with Intel's Itanium. Intel's plan to
dominate the high end processor market with its proprietary Itanium
design now faces challenges from AMD below and IBM above.
Sun Microsystems is another company in the throes of change. It has
just cancelled its next planned processor, the UltraSparc V, in order
to go with new multicore designs named Niagara and Rock. It has also
extended its systems line to embrace AMD's Opteron and Linux
while continuing to enhance the Solaris operating system.
On top of these processor events, the personal computer industry is
about to go through a major set of changes in 2004 and 2005. The base
design will change more in one year than ever before. How this will
play with businesses and home users is still an open question.
Intel's Big Problems
The biggest PC industry change is driven by AMD's 64-bit extensions to
the original Intel x86 architecture.
Page 1 of 1
BYTE.com > Advanced Software and Technologies > 2004
|
