IBM joins Trillian project

IBM will be joining the Trillian project to port Linux to Merced. The other members of Trillian are Intel, VA Linux Systems, SGI, Hewlett-Packard, and Cygnus Solutions. Linux will be shown running on a simulated Merced today at the Linuxworld conference.

Comments

Re:Merced Sucks. Go with the Alpha.

[Gleef]

Anonymous Coward complains:

The Alpha is an established 64-bit standard, and I can understand its manuals.
Yes, the Alpha is very good.

I cannot understand the manuals for the Merced.
You don't have to. It's the kernel, gcc and glib people who do. Write in C, it's safer.


It is possible, though usually inefficient, to hand-code for the Alpha. It is impossible for the Merced.
Hand coding is never impossible. A big pain in the burro, but not impossible.

Alpha already is running Linux. Not so Merced.
As the article indicates, Merced is already running Linux, to the extent where Merced exists. We're already ahead of the NT and Monterrey projects for Merced.

Why are we wasting time with the Merced? It is nothing but welfare for Intel.
Two reasons. First, we want to support everything, that would include Merced by definition. Second, Merced will have lots of marketting bucks behind it, that will make it popular. We certainly should support the more popular platforms, even if they have deficiencies.

Alpha has been around for years, and it has demonstrated its worth again and again. It is the architecture of the future.
I agree.

Who needs Merced?
Intel does, to survive the future. The rest of us do, because Merced will make 64 bit platforms popular, and in the computer world, popular becomes inexpensive very quickly.

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