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Microsoft Commits to Using Opteron

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the catching-up-to-linux dept.

the_1000th_Monkey writes "According these articles at The Inquirer, Infoworld, and The Register Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 will support AMD's 64-bit Opteron processor. Beta releases can be expected in the middle of this year. Here is MS's official press release."

13 of 390 comments (clear)

  1. Any Doubt? by TheFlyingGoat · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Was there any doubt that this would happen? Since MS is running on about a 3-5 year Server cycle, the next server release would happen around 2008. I would assume that most high end servers and many workstations would have 64 bit processors by this time. It just makes sense that MS would support the 64 bit processor being released by the 2nd largest processor company.

    --
    You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. --Winston Churchill
    1. Re:Any Doubt? by rodgerd · · Score: 5, Insightful

      x86-64 is scarecly a hack, it's a pretty significant re-engineering effort that actually addresses many of the complaints about the ia32 architecture (like register starvation).

      As for why WinXP doesn't play well on the Itanium - it's a hard problem. The ia64 architecture is completely new and is using a lot of concepts which are not well understood. It relies very, very heavily on compilers being tailored for it - there are still huge performance gaps between the various compilers claiming ia64 as a target (HP, for example, are still running 20-30% better than Intel's compiler).

      Intel have screwed themselves here - their product is too radical a shift to make it easy for vendors to adapt.

  2. 64 Bit-OS .... that's great, but ... by mustangdavis · · Score: 2, Insightful

    .... it will be a while before the software catches up ....


    Just my $0.02 cents ...

    --
    HallmarkOrnaments.Com
    1. Re:64 Bit-OS .... that's great, but ... by stratjakt · · Score: 2, Insightful

      For most software, it really doesnt matter. The big thing is the 4 gig memory ceiling on a 32 bit app. It's not really so much a speed issue. 64 bit computing wont make a game or AIM or email any better. All that stuff can just run along happily in 32 bit mode.

      SQL Server will ship a 64 bit native version, this is one of the few apps I know of that can really make use of a 64 bit system right now.

      I see this as something to help shove some big iron out of giant datacentres, but it hardly affects the average Joes desktop, if at all.

      In fact, is the XP Home edition getting 64 bit support too? I wouldnt be surprised if they didnt bother.

      --
      I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
    2. Re:64 Bit-OS .... that's great, but ... by zealot · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Your comments are misleading. The extra registers CAN improve performance when code is compiled to use them, but will not necessarily. AMD has previously quoted numbers that the expect to get about 15% additional performance with code that used the registers over code that does not. However, we do not know which apps they're using...

      Also, I believe that interview you mention does talk about a 30% increase in performance, but it does NOT say it is from the registers (I can't find the link to the interview). It's not very clear what they were comparing to, but if I remeber correctly it looked like they were comparing to a regular Athon. Thus, the 30% increase would be coming from a) a new core with micro-architectural enhancements b) onboard memory controller c) extra registers.

      --
      He said, "You'll be able to tell your grandchildren that you helped assemble the first NT supercomputer," and I cringed.
  3. Re:Tough choice for MS, I'm sure by chrisseaton · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Change the record, grandad zealot!

    Windows _has_ moved on since that.

  4. Re:Looks like that's it for the "Wintel" theory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    And does this make AMD part of the Axis of Evil now?

    Actually, I think it simply means that Microsoft is porting their OS to an AMD architecture. Pocket PC/SmartPhone run on ARM processors, does that make all the companies who license ARM cores evil too?

    People around here are all to eager to attribute negative conotations to any company who MS works with. Hell, if MS helps out AMD and AMD helps out Linux (which it does), it seems to me that things are going in the right direction.

  5. Fragmentation for Windows 64-bit or Intel trouble? by eyefish · · Score: 4, Insightful

    From a user's point of view, I wonder if in a couple of years users will have to decide if they want binaries for Intel's 64-bit architecture or AMD's. This as you all know is not a good thing, since it will bring market confussion to users (however, in the server space where these chips are first targeted this is not so big of an issue, specially with technologies like Java). A workaround is for companies to ship versions of their products for both architectures, thus at the very least this represents a burden on developers.

    Another posibility I see is that AMD's choice of creating a backwards-compatible x86-64 instructions set will reign supreme over Intel's, and thus force Intel to adopt in AMD's x86-64.

    Either way, I see turbulent times ahead...

  6. Very Interesting... by greenskyx · · Score: 2, Insightful

    What do you think the chances are that their main motivation here is that they don't want to be beat to the punch by Linux.

    Just imagine if the only 64-Bit servers you could buy were non-MS based...

  7. Question by Acidic_Diarrhea · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Do you think that writing "M$" makes you look cool? A bad ass perhaps? A lone individual in the great fight against the Evil Empire?

    If you do, you're wrong.

    You're no different than the people who type "Lunix."

    Learn to enjoy civil discourse.

    --
    I hate liberals. If you are a liberal, do not reply.
  8. Microsoft Misses Opteron Product Launch by Master+Bait · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Is like I see it. They're already losing out to Linux and BSD on the server side of things. Now they didn't even get their act together enough to have something for the Opteron launch.

    By the time their crappy server OS does get launched, they will be facing an entrenched group of free OSs that have 100% market share.

    --
    "Only in their dreams can men truly be free 'twas always thus, and always thus will be."
    --Tom Schulman
  9. Re:From the article by Jugalator · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Is this the first advertisement where you notice a statement like this? Or do you comment like this for each ad you see? Or perhaps just MS advertisements?

    --
    Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
  10. Re:Tough choice for MS, I'm sure by m_pll · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Yep, I knew all that...still why was it so much easier to port Linux?

    NT has been running on AMD64 for more than a year now. There's a difference between porting the kernel and releasing a fully tested product with major application support (Exchange, SQL etc).

    So your theory is that Microsoft has been sitting on it's hands all these years without porting to any of the readily available 64-bit platforms? Including Itanic, which has been around in beta incarnations for several years?

    Of course not. In fact, there are released Itanium versions of XP and Windows 2000. I heard that before that, there was an internal 64-bit Alpha version of Win2K.