The mission of 64bit.org is to explore all aspects of the 64 bit generation of computing systems from the gory technicial details to the issues that drive the business need for these systems.

That's a big move as Itanium has cost HP a significant amount of money.

Now let's look at the latest sales information and well see why HP sees the writing on the wall.
Ok, compare that with AMD's sales projections: With numbers like these it's clear who the market leader is now. In it's first year AMD64 is leading Intel's Itanium by a wide margin of 20 to 80 times! Considering that Intel has been shiping the Itanium for a couple of years now... they have a serious challenge.

The Beauty of Itanium and The Attraction of the AMD64 Beast
As a long time assembly language programmer with a couple major programs written entirely in assembly language I have studied the Itanium IA64 design and instruction set and find it fascinating. It's got lots of room for optimizations and very nice features like the predicate branching. It's really amazing from a technical point of view. However, if it isn't adopted by the market and if Intel and HP (a co-creator of the Itanium) can't get the market to accept it on a mass scale then we're going to be using the AMD64 bit extensions to the venerable IA32 Pentium style architecture and instruction set for a long time. Which is fine. Actually it's great since there is so much software written for the Pentium that it would be like trying move Mount Everest without earth moving equipment to get the Itanium adopted, especially the way that Intel prices it.

The only path for Intel to prevailing in the marketplace with their Itanium design is to "merge" the Itanium with the AMD64 bit (Pentium-EMT64) line of processors AND to license the Itanium design to others including AMD. Fortunately, from a hardware and instruction set level Intel has laid the groundwork for this to take place by including an instruction to "switch" between Itanium and Pentium instruction sets. They need to extend this to EMT64 (which they must do if Itanium continues). The other aspect that needs to be taken care of it the speed of the Pentium instruction processing within an Itanium chip as it is dismal in the current generation of Itanium 2s. It would be great to see a "dual core" Itanium-Pentium/EMT64 chip that can run both instruction sets at full throttle and be priced competitively with AMD64 Opterons! As long as Intel keeps the Itanium chips priced high and the design locked down to itself and HP it's going nowhere fast in the "commodity market place". Mainline the Itanium Intel!

In the meantime I'm preparing to buy new AMD64 based systems to upgrade all our desktops, laptops, and servers! I would have preferred a more powerful 64 bit chip from a design perspective but heck I'll take what the market chooses for the simple reason that price and performance matters to not just me but to the vast majority. And the comodity pricing wars drive the innovation forward within the constraint of low prices. This is something which AMD seems to have grasped better with their 64 bit strategy than Intel did (unless Intel simply mucked up their own strategy). You can't ignore the market when you undertake new products Intel.

Well, from a technicial design point of view at least the AMD64 design is 64 bits and makes other much needed improvements on the old IA32 Pentium design. Thanks for those extra bits, registers and the added "sanity" in the instruction set AMD! Bring it on! Hundres of millions of boxes to upgrade!

For specialty applications that are not as price sensitive then there could still be a niche market for the Itanium. The future is to a large degree in Intel's hands. Lower the price of the Itanium, join it at the hip with a fast Pentium-EMT64 core and let the games begin!

"Intel plans to demonstrate a 64-bit revamp of its Xeon and Pentium processors in mid-February--an endorsement of a major rival's strategy and a troubling development for Intel's Itanium chip." Article

"Despite the high prices and often hard-to-get chips, Opteron is racing ahead in its quest to possibly become the dominant 64-bit processor architecture on the workstation and server front: a proof that the creaky X86 architecture now has such a market pull that it can have a life of its own at the very high end, even against Intel's express wishes."

"... a quad-CPU Opteron 848 has 25.6 GB/s memory bandwidth, compared to just 6.4 GB/s in a quad-Itanium2." Wow! Article

"This is an awesome picture of the inside of the PowerPC 970 chip. What the heck do all these bits of silicon do?" Article | PowerPC 970 Chip Image

"IBM's ... announcement of the PowerPC 970 was one of the most heavily anticipated processor announcements in recent memory. Mac users, would-be Mac users, Linux enthusiasts, and anyone with a serious interest in desktop computing waited to see just what Big Blue would unveil as the first offensive in its newly announced effort to bring 64-bit RISC computing out of the server closet or rendering house and onto the mainstream desktop."

"It's widely acknowledged that in continuing to insist on 32-bit architectures for the desktop and in pushing IA-64 as its sole, 64-bit migration path, Intel has left a large gap in its upper midrange to high-end desktop computing lineup. What about customers who want a smooth transition to 64 bits but don't want to pay a steep premium in terms of price and software availability for Itanium2? Before word of the PowerPC 970 hit the 'net in the form of a seminar description on the Microprocessor Forum 2002's website, such customers were facing only one option: AMD's forthcoming Hammer series of x86-64 processors. Now, though, IBM will join AMD in jumping right into the 64-bit gap left by Intel, and depending on the 970's real-world performance and availability at the time of its projected 2H03 release date, the desktop computing landscape could look very exciting indeed. Full Article - Part I

"One fact that's often overlooked in discussions of IBM's upcoming 64-bit Power4 derivative desktop chip is that the PowerPC 970 is not IBM's first desktop PowerPC CPU."

"Many Mac users have become so accustomed to blaming Motorola for the sorry state of Apple's desktop line that they forget that IBM has always been and still is a supplier of Apple's CPUs. IBM and Motorola originally co-developed the first PowerPC chips that Apple used in its initial PowerMac line, and they also co-developed the G3... ...a close examination of IBM's PowerPC 970 reveals that it was made with Apple in mind as the primary customer. Furthermore, it's almost certain that Apple will introduce a new high-bandwidth frontside bus and memory subsystem design for towers based on the new processor. In a short, we now know what Apple has been up to for the past two years while their desktop line has languished." Full Article - Part II

The gauntlet has dropped. Intel must respond to the AMD and Apple 64 bit challenge.

It seems that the best strategy for Intel is to bring out an Itanium chip with a existing, yet modified, and proper Pentium 4 core integrated on chip (better), or off chip (not so good). The existing Itanium IA32 internal core, with it's inadaquate 32 bit performance, is, quite frankly, giving the farm to AMD and Apple. If the Itanium was able to have the 32 bit performance of the AMD Optium, the Intel Xeon or Pentium 4 and the price was right then Intel may have a chance to sail into the top 64 bit market share slot. Otherwise, it will continue to be rough sailing for them.

We need to see a sea change in Intel's attitude to catch the 64 bit consumer wave. AMD and Apple are now poised to ride the rising tsunami, and the last thing that Intel wants to see is a sea change that carries AMD and Apple to huge successes. Come on in and play Intel, what are you waiting for? Time to catch the 64 bit wave for real Intel. - Peter W. Lount

The 64 Bit Computing Era finally hit the mainstream mass market on the 23rd of June, 2003, with Apple announcing 64 bit personal computers! It's about time that 64 bit computing leave the exclusive domain of super computer clusters in the server room and enter the reach of the small business and home buyers. Apple (and IBM who supplies the G5 chip) has actually beaten Intel and AMD to the 64 bit mass market. While other 64 bit systems have been available for years, Apple is the first to bring high profile marketing to the game. This is about market perception. People will see that 64 bits is better than 32 bits and those people will want their 64 bits! And now they will think of Apple first! What an masterfull stroke of marketing and a supurb accomplishment for Apple!

Intel's 64 bit Itanium has been languishing with poor sales and a slow capability ramp up period. This is likely caused as much by Intel's attitude that 64 bit computing is years off as it is by Intel's technology choices and glitches bringing their Itanim {or Itanic as some call it} to market. Before the awesome Itanium design will dominate, Intel must address the price. Unfortunately, it's marketing, not the better technology that will win the day. It's inexplicable why Intel takes the attitude that 64 bit computing isn't needed now. Now that Apple has jumped the gun and with AMD twitching in preparation for it's sprint into the 64 bit markets, Intel had better adapt, or the paranoid won't survive without being burned on market share.

AMD just released their 64 bit Opteron server chips and is on the verge of bring out their mass market Athlon 64. The elegant simplicity with which AMD has cloned Intel's strategy of extending the X86 architecture is a force to be rekoned with. Intel must address the low end of the 64 bit market before AMD and Apple capture too much market share.

Apple has pulled the 64 bit rabbit out of the hat! Hopefully it's 64 karats for Apple, as they need a big boost to keep the venerable OpenStep 5.3 alive! Woops, I mean the new MacOSX version 10.3 Panther alive! ;--)

The Apple G5 based products are fast, very fast. They even trounch Intel in most of the benchmarks, which is a welcome switch for Apple. - Peter W. Lount

"Although the 64-bit PowerPC processor was designed by IBM, Apple itself designed the system controller. In a surprising advancement for the Apple platform, the front-side processor bus runs at a full gigahertz, a significant increase over the 800-MHz front-side bus used by Intel processors. All of the new G5 systems are equipped with AGP 8X and Serial ATA storage connections." Full Article

"World’s fastest” {personal computer} based on SPEC® CPU 2000 benchmark results and leading professional application performance tests against 3 GHz Pentium 4-based Dell Dimension 8300 and 3.06 GHz Dual Xeon-based Dell Precision 650." Full Article

"If anyone is integrating 64-bit systems for the HPC cluster environment, they will have to make use of AMD Opteron. If they don't, they will not be in that business." Full Article

It looks like the battle between AMD and Intel for the 64 bit market is finally heating up with a full range of products becoming available from AMD this spring, summer and fall. With AMD's Opteron hot performance trouncing Intels Xeon, and with AMD's awesome price/$ of performance ratio it does not look good for the Intel products. - Peter W. Lount

"If we think realistically about most of the world's commercial software not as "software" in the abstract but as x86 binary code, then it becomes apparent that improvements to the x86 ISA represent one of the most practical and cost-effective ways to advance and expand the x86 software market. ... The question of why we need 64-bit computing is often asked but rarely answered in a satisfactory manner. ... Any claim that "4GB is enough" or that address windowing extensions are a viable solution are just plain nuts. Do people really think programmers will re-adopt early 1990's bank-swapping technology? ... The days of $4000 workstation and server CPU's are over, and those of $1000 CPU's are numbered. ... Intel should be listening to customers and taking the leadership role on the 64-bit desktop transition, not making these ridiculous "end of the decade" statements to the press." Full Article OSNews Chat

"The most important events in the 64 bit universe in the past year and a half have been outside the technical arena. Dominating everything was a major industry downturn from a weakened economy, reduced capital spending ... It is apparent that only the most technically competent RISC processors can keep up with the blistering performance pace set by 32 bit x86 MPUs. ... Despite being kept on minimum life support and locked in a dark crawl space, HP’s unwanted bastard stepchild Alpha continues to confound friends and foes alike. ... Hardly a week goes buy without a major computer OEM announcing a shiny new product line based on the Itanium 2. ... The near term road map of the Itanium family seems quite clear." Full Article

"there's a table near the end that shows some predictions for 64-bit processor performance levels about this time next year. We've plotted it..." - InquireInside.com Article & Chart

"I asked our very lovely readers to send me their thoughts or information on the x86-64 vs IA-64 situation, whether they were aware of software in development for one or the other, or whether or not their particular businesses were planning to adopt either solution. This resulted in a flood of emails which I've spent some time reading and sorting through." Full Article

"As you know, AMD keeps on promising to release new-generation processors based on the Hammer core - Athlon 64 and Opteron. The first is meant for the desktop market, while the other for the server sector. Now we will look into and analyze information we have about these processors. " - Digit-life.com Full HARDCORE Article

"Hammer tested on over 50 operating systems." - InquirerInside.com Related Inquirer Inside Summary

"It's the peak, the top, it's the Mona Lisa. It's the $64,000 Question: what processor will dominate 64-bit computing? Sixty-four bits holds the promise of new performance, new architectures, new compilers, and a new balance of power in CPU realpolitik. A clean break with the old, a new chance for the new." Full Article (one page version)

"AMD's forthcoming Opteron processor--aka Hammer--packs ground-breaking technology: Its hybrid design allows the chip to run 32- or 64-bit operating systems natively. Plus, AMD claims that one Opteron running in its 32-bit mode will outperform two XEONs--the heart of the most advanced 32-bit servers based on Intel technology. But where are the benchmarks? Which system vendors are planning Opteron-based servers? And what about software support? Until some of these pieces fall into place, AMD's gamble looks to be facing some long odds." Special Report Index

"Intel Corp duly rolled out its "McKinley" Itanium 2 processors yesterday, and as results of the first industry standard benchmark tests run on the machines were finally available, IT vendors and their customers can get a grip on how well or poorly the Itanium 2 machines compare to RISC/Unix, IA-32, and other alternatives in the server market, ..." Full Article

"Hewlett Packard Co, perhaps the biggest supporter of the Itanium architecture aside from Intel Corp, took the launch of the "McKinley" Itanium 2 processor from Intel yesterday as an opportunity to elaborate on its immediate and long-term plans to incorporate the Itanium 2 processors as well as future generations of IA-64 processors into the HP workstation and server product lines, ..." Full Article

"During the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) here this week, Intel Corp. plans to outline more details about its McKinley line of 64-bit microprocessors, but it will remain mum about another new 64-bit technology, code-named 'Yamhill.'" Full Article

"THIS TIME ALMOST EXACTLY a year ago, a crime took place. Alpha, the fastest and most elegant general-purpose processor architecture to date, and the first pure 64-bit microprocessor, was brutally murdered by its owner - at the height of its performance leadership, which she kept stubbornly despite its funding being gradually strangled by "PC-centric, industry-standard" Compaq over the last few years. Yes, the only problem Alpha ever had, but bad enough to be fatal, was its owner company.'" Full Article

"Ambition can be a double edged sword; on the one hand, it can push you to accomplish that which you'd previously never thought possible, yet on the other, it can set you up for a much larger failure in the long run. In our "little" microprocessor community, we've got two very ambitious manufacturers, the very same names you've been hearing and debating over for the past few years, none other than AMD and Intel. Prior to AMD's release of their Athlon processor, which, for the longest time bore the codename 'K7', placing AMD's name before Intel's in a sentence was pretty much unheard of. The company had been improving their stance in the desktop microprocessor industry, but they were still more than a few steps behind Intel. " Full Article (one page version)

"We're ... generally praying that AMD's x86-64 succeeds in the market, forcing Intel to make Yamhill their standard platform." Full Article