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More Drooling Over The Opteron
bradv writes "I havent heard much about the new 64bit chips from AMD lately and was excited to find this article to satisfy my appetite for a little while longer. Probably more info than most people will ever care about. "
I think this is accurate because of the architecutural choice AMD made--instead of going with an all-new architecture, ala Itanium, they instead blew out the x86 system to 64 bits. That level of division in the CPU market at this time feels like it will have a very significant effect on the balance of power.
No one besides servers can use 64 bit chips right now
This is exactly what makes the Opteron an attractive processor. Rather then being simply a 64 bit proc like the Itanium, it has the ability to run legacy 32-bit instructions. This is a Good Thing. Now I can have a 64-bit proc that can still run all my old apps, but still can take advantage of the benefits of 64-bit architechure.
In fact, as I see it, the only people that won't benefit from 64-bit are Windows users. Until MS makes a 64-bit version of Windows the standard, the only people that will benefit from the Opteron will be the people that run OSes that they compiled themselves.
I dont know why this needs to be continually restated but... AMD (Advanced Micro Devices, not Advanced Micro Processors) makes more than just PC processors! PC processor's are the tip of the iceberg when you consider embedded processors. TV's, VCR's, phones, dishwashers, etc. are all using embedded processor's now, and the # of products that use them in the future will continue to grow. Absolute worst case scenario, AMD will bow out of the CPU market. AMD is a huge company. One, two, three, or even four flopped products are not going to phase AMD. Look at AMD's website. PC processors are the most mainstream product they make, and thus the highest profile, but processors are just a cog in the AMD wheel. (And the same thing goes for Intel).
Yes, but as far as the PC market is concerned the original poster is correct -- if the Athlon64 and Opteron do not significantly increase AMD's market share then they're gone -- as in out of the market. Which means we essentially go back to a single chip maker monopoly for the PC market.
If AMD wasn't around to spur Intel on (and vica versa) do you think we'd have a 3 GHz CPU available to the general public right now? Yes, you can question the need for one, or you can whine about the price, but the reality is that competition has significantly improved both prices and features.
Will AMD, the company, go under? Doubt it. But they can't stay in a losing market much longer, and right now the x86 market is a massive loss leader for them.
Well, x86 continues to live because of the absolutely enormous amount of software written for it. Could you even begin to fathom starting at zero again? Itanium failed for this very reason. Sure, one of the holy grails as programmers we are supposed to chase after is full portability, but technical and time constraints often make that a dream. It is unfortunate, but the only way I can forsee a momentous move to a completely new architecture is if Microsoft really monopolizes the entire software industry, and then gets in bed w/ CPU makers and agrees to port all of the apps to this new architecture, and then everyone will make a ton of money selling new hardware and software that is legacy free. I will place my bet that in 10-15 years we will still be having this discussion.
Itanium has lots of cool new features that compilers could be using and people could be taking advantage of
Yes, and Intel would really appreciate it if someone would develop a compiler that takes full advantage of the Itanium. Really. Please. Because their own compiler is still struggling with the problems inherent in VLIW... yes, it's much, much, much better than it was a couple years ago, but it's still nowhere near where it needs to be.
And it costs a fortune. But, hey, if you can afford a $9000 chip, you should be able to afford the compiler too.
I like and respect Intel... I've grown beyond the newbie EE stance of "it sucks because it does", and recognize that they have some of the best minds working there, and that their fab processes are second to none. But Itanium has been a massive disaster for them, and they're now caught between a rock and a hard place. They can continue developing future revisions of IA64 and hope that someday their engineers figure out how to make it work well, work cheaply, and work fast with legacy code, or they can commit corporate hari kari and adopt x86-64 from AMD. Or they could do something similar, but different, to x86-64 on their own and just piss off everyone. Bad choices all around.
The only chance Itanium has is if AMD flubs the Athlon64/Opteron launch. AMD will probably pull out of the market shortly after and Intel can gradually increase profit margins to the point where throwing cash at a losing proposition (IA64) remains viable. And eventually force everyone to transition, like it or not (which, admittedly, would probably be a good thing in the long run, but the short term would suck).