Intel Itanium

[Henry Rollins II]

The Intel Itanium is avalible in 733 Mhz 2 Mb L3 cache, 800 Mhz 2 and 4 Mb L3 cache. It looks like a FCPGA with about the same set of pins, but it is twice as wide and with a huge piece of metal on top it. Power consumption for the processor alone is 110 to 130 watts according to Intel specs.

Intel say this cpu can be used in configurations with 512 cpu´s, but it is also available in workstation configuration. The HP i2000 is marketed as a "latest technology" high end workstation, base price for a dual 800 Mhz is _$15.000_!! There is also a 4Gb memory upgrade avalible for a mere 8000 dollars. Memory type is PC100 sdram, not sure if it is registered/ECC or not.

Now what is this Itanium processor? What does it do that the ordinary AMDs and Intels doesn´t? How on earth is possible that fully loaded dual 800 Mhz workstation could cost $20.000? I put together a super dual AMD system on a retailers homepage: dual MP1900, 4Gb PC2100 DDR reg/ECC, ATI FireGL 8800 128 Mb DDR, mylex SCSI raid card, 5 x 18 Gb 10krpm U160 hddrives, tyan mobo, Lian-Li full tower, 550 watt PSU, Soundblaster audigy, DVD and it didn´t even hit $8000.

*edit* The dual AMD board could be shifted to a dual Xeon P4 board. It costs about twice as much as the tyan amd board, but it has onboard SCSI. The memory is also more expensive. But if the raid card i skipped and the onboard SCSI is used instead, the total price will still be about $8000, using dual Xeon 1.7 Ghz
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regards,
Henry

 

[Malakai]

ahhh, the Itanium is the 1st 64-bit processoor. all the other processors are x86 generation processors. intel created a new architechture, IA-64, for the itanium. Its a great design from an engineering standpoint, unfortunately, its pretty slow.
Not worth the $$ in my opinion. AMD is coming out with the hammer, their 1st 64-bit processor, based on an intirely new architecture to, called x86-64. Their architecture is more fully compatible with today's 32-bit proggies and will be great.
Hammer will be in a desktop form, called Clawhammer, and the high-end server version, called sledgehammer. the only differences in the 2 will be how many processors can be used in parallel and the cache size, 512 for claw and 1meg for sledge, i believe.
Itaniums already have a windows being made for them, but at like 3000$ a chip, i doubt they'll sell.
the next itanium will supposedly be at least twice as fast, i cant remember. but those prices are insane.
-Malakai

 

[JaY_III]

Sun Has been making x86 PC's for years...
and so has ALPHA....
other than that part, the rest of what Malakia is correct....

Intel said they reason they created the Itanium was not for consumers, but so that they could make the next generations of CPU's. Wish i had the exact quote.... oh well

BX TILL 64 BIT, OH YEAH BABY

 

[theflyingrat]

ahhh, the Itanium is the 1st 64-bit processoor. all the other processors are x86 generation processors.

The Itanium is only Intel's first 64-bit processor. 64-bit processors have been around for years and years and years before Intel ever dreamed the Itanic up. Alpha/MIPS, Sun SPARC, HP PA-RISC, etc. etc. etc., nevermind the PowerPC line of CPUS (dare I say!)....well, you get what I'm saying.

Unfortunately, the PC world has been stuck in the dark ages of 32-bit computing for waaaay too long. Now, people are finally going to see what 64-bit computing is all about when AMD drops the Hammer line on us; Intel will supposedly follow suit with a 64-bit design of their own.

And although the Itanium is relatively new, it's not really that slow. Although it can be outperformed in a lot of cases by the aforementioned CPUs, 733 or 800 MHz is quite a bit for a server-class 64-bit CPU; keep in mind, MIPS CPUs are still running at 500 and 600 MHz. And from a pure number-crunching standpoint, a 600 MHz MIPS will eat a 3GHz Pentium 4 alive. I'd imagine an Itanium would do the same. These are not home processors developed with big numbers in mind to impress the populace. If you need a LOT of large files processed day in and day out quickly, these are the CPUs to do it. Anything you can build on a PC-retailer's homepage doesn't even compare....