Linus on Intel's 64 bit Extensions

ceswiedler writes "KernelTrap is running a thread on the Linux-Kernel mailing list about Intel's new IA-32e 64-bit chip. Linus complains 'what I found so irritating is that _hours_ after the Intel announcement, people were _still_ confused about whether the new intel chip was actually compatible with AMD's chips.' It is, of course, but you have to do a thorough comparison of Intel's reference manuals to discover that-- they don't mention the fact that their new chip is instruction-set compatible with AMD's x86-64 chip." See the previous story for background. So it looks like the reason Intel was vague about their announcement is that they didn't want the WORLD TO KNOW THAT THEY WERE COPYING AND FOLLOWING AMD rather than developing some new thing on their own. Slashdot is proud to help Intel in this quest; wouldn't want the public to know that INTEL WAS SIMPLY FOLLOWING IN AMD'S FOOTSTEPS. Hope this helps.

Comments

Of course they aren't being innovative..

[PurdueGraphicsMan]

If they were they'd be Apple, not Intel. Duh!

Re:Why such negative attitude towards Intel?

[stratjakt]

But everybody fucking knew all along they'd be compatible.

MSFT said there would be only one 64 bit windows. Whoever came up with the specs, they carved them in stone with this decision. Obviously if Intel wants to be in Windows desktops, they'd be compatible.

They didn't bury the truth anywhere.

The tech manual is a tech manual. It's full of specs and details, like it should be. It neednt list competitors products that are binary compatible.

And who the fuck cares what linus thinks about the name, frankly. Boo fucking hoo. Sounds like he's jealous because transmeta cant "get it up".

yes see

[geekoid]

Linus said that there compaitible, therefore intel is following in there footsteps.

OR

Intel built there to be compatible with AMD, and still have there own stuff as well.

MICHAEL you are an idiot for trying TO MAKE SOME POINT about a CONCLUSION from somebody WHO HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE DESIGN.

Presumably you've been using the internet for more then a week, so you should no better with the caps.
Dolt.

Re:Full Linus Message

[Gizzmonic]

I just wish there was more honesty involved, and less friggin *POSTURING*.

Whoa, Linus! Ease up on the hypocrisy. No one wants to hear a tirade about how to punctuate "x86-64," and how Itanium is a "locked-in chip with patents and no serious competition internally." Have you forgotten that you work for a company that produced patented, proprietary CPUs?

I thought Linus was known for his soft-spokenness and restraint. Has he become too big for his britches lately or what?

Would you like some cheese with that whine, Linus?

[scot4875]

Jeez ... I don't claim to be half the programmer that Linus is, but I've never once had any confusion over what IA32 meant. It's just a freakin' NAME. It's meant to distinguish itself from other x86 instruction sets that *aren't* IA32. Get over it, Linus.

--Jeremy

Is Linus an expert here?

[Anonymous Coward]

Whip out the Troll mods if you must, but is Linus' track record with chips really something that qualifies him as an expert? Didn't Transmeta's uninspiring lack of success indicate he might not really understand the processor landscape as well as he thinks he does?

This topic strikes me more as someone venting a personal peeve, which is fair enough, but not really a newsworthy comdendation from an expert.

You seem to have forgotten your history

[hayden]

Can I get you to cast your mind back to the Pentium 1.14 Gig processor. Almost every review site was raving about how wonderful the first 1 Gig processor was. etc etc

Except Toms Hardware and one other (it may have been Anandtech). They actually did verifiable testing and found they could not finish compiling the linux kernel without it crashing. Shortly afterwards, due to the noise made by these two sites, intel recalled the chip.

Just because they change sides doesn't mean they're following the advertising dollars. The early athlons did outperform intel chips. Then intel caught up and recently the P4s have been outperforming the Athlons. Now it looks like Athlon 64s will outperform the P4s. This happens.

As for using a comment directed at the AMD-fanboys as evidence, the AMD-fanboys are freaks and are far more biased than any news site could possible get away with.