Intel Gets PA-RISC Engineers

Doctor_D writes "Well it looks like Intel has done it again. They have absorbed more processor engineers, this time from HP. Alpha is gone, PA-RISC is going, what's going to be left? MIPS? SPARC? AMD? Crusoe? "

Comments

Zilog, of course!

[AaronStJ]

Alpha is gone, PA-RISC is going, what's going to be left? MIPS? SPARC? AMD? Crusoe?

Zilog, of course! The greatest CPU to ever go without MUL/DIV intructions. It's a wonder it's not used in more modern computers. If it's good enough for your Gameboy and you calculator, it's good enough for your desktop, I say.

...Now If only I could find a Linux distro for my TRS-80...

HP did not sell PA-RISC to Intel

[gnomer]

I am an engineer in HP's primary PA-RISC processor development lab. I still work for HP. I still work on PA-RISC chips as do hundreds of my co-workers. Let me be clear about this: HP is NOT getting rid of its PA-RISC line or selling it to Intel or anybody else.

The group that was transfered to Intel worked on chipset development for some of HP's servers and workstations. Because of the economic conditions, it was deemed unfeasible to keep that group in HP, so instead of laying them all off, a deal was worked out to give them jobs at Intel. I'd say the engineers in that group are in a lot better shape than many of my other co-workers across the company who just got layed off in August.

Anyway, my point is that PA-RISC isn't dead. There are still a lot of people working on both CPUs and chipsets. We will be doing a number of iterations yet of the PA processor family before HP transitions to using IPF in the long term (we're talking years from now). Ignore the classic /. sensationalist headline and try to get the facts.

Linux jobs, HP-Intel partnership

[Bruce Perens]

Not my official HP hat on, folks. I'm making this posting on my own, not speaking for the company.

Before you protest too much: They are adding Linux positions, and the money has to come from somewhere.

HP has been transitioning its processor operation to Intel for years. HP partnered with Intel to develop the IA-64 architecture. Did anyone think that PA-RISC would continue in parallel to that forever?

The world has some very serious single-source issues regarding high-end silicon in general. The fabrication lines have become so incredibly expensive as chips become more dense that most companies have given up on new CPU fab construction. And you can't make new chips with those old FABs. Perhaps we'll be lucky and there will be a revolution in microfabrication technology, but I've not heard of one on the horizon.

Another place where this hurts us is in high-end graphics, where we are down to two manufacturers.

I'd like to see more work on Open Sourced processor designs that run in field-programmable logic. This is a place where we can innovate without the expense of a fab, and then when we have good ideas that get proven, people can fab them.

Thanks

Bruce

Scott McNealy was right

[Ami Ganguli]

I remember seeing McNealy speak some years ago at a tradeshow (I don't remember exactly when or where). He explained some of the economics of CPU design and predicted that in a few years there would be only three major architectures: SPARC (Sun), PowerPC (IBM), and Intel. It's kind of creepy how his predictions have come true.

His arguement was based on financial analysis of how much it cost to develop and maintain a competitive architecture, and how much revenue each of the big players could expect from their designs. HP was doing comparitively well at the time, but McNealy figured they were using revenue from printers to subsidize their chip business, and that couldn't go on forever.

Alpha was still a viable competitor at that point, but again it comes down to volume. You might get a team of crack engineers together to design a beautiful CPU, but if you don't get the volume (or high margins like IBM mainframes) then you can't afford to keep the architecture competitive.

Why the anti-Intel tone?

[phaze3000]

Why did the poster feel the need to adopt such an anti-Intel tone? Diversity is all well and good, but the fact of the matter is HP had no market need for these people. Would the poster rather they were unemployed, or doing jobs that weren't using their potential?

I for one congratulate Intel for giving these talented engineers jobs.