News
More Itanium 2 Speed Claims
- By Scott Bekker
- 06/20/2002
As the industry readies for the second-generation of 64-bit processors from Intel Corp., the pre-audit benchmark claims continue rolling out.
In late May, Intel said its forthcoming Itanium 2 processor will bring performance 1.5 to 2 times that of the Itanium processor.
On Wednesday, Intel executives demonstrated a beta version of 64-bit Windows running on a four-processor Hewlett-Packard Co. server at a technology conference for the securities industry, one of the key early adopter vertical markets for Intel to penetrate with Itanium systems.
HP put out a news release about the demo, claiming that its prototype Itanium 2-based system ran the Reuters Structured Negotiation Capability software four times faster than an eight-processor Sun Fire 3800 server.
HP helped Intel develop the Itanium processors. Itanium 2, previously known by the code-name McKinley, is expected to ship sometime in the next few months.
Running the demo using Windows is a significant sign that HP will put some muscle behind its Windows on Itanium 2 efforts. Windows competes for HP's sales efforts surrounding Itanium 2 with HP-UX and Linux, which both also run on the Itanium 2 processor.
Microsoft has limited editions of 64-bit Windows servers available for early adopter customers of Itanium systems. A general release of a 64-bit Windows server operating system is supposed to ship simultaneously with Windows .NET Server. Microsoft plans 64-bit editions of Windows .NET Enterprise Server and Windows .NET Datacenter Server.
About the Author
Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.