April 24, 2003
(Computerworld)
The next generation of Intel Corp. Itanium 2 processors will get an upgrade meant to improve the performance 32-bit enterprise applications running on Itanium-based systems.
The new 64-bit chip will include an execution software layer that will be ready in the second half of the year as part of a "natural evolution for 32-bit support on Itanium," said Intel spokesman Scott McLaughlin. The IA-32 software execution layer has been under development for several years as the processors have evolved, he said, and it was a topic of discussion at the Intel Developers Forum earlier this year.
McLaughlin said the new software is in validation testing and will be ready for the next version of Itanium 2, code-named Madison. The software code is expected to allow 32-bit applications running on Itanium 2 to have performance on par with an Intel 32-bit Xeon 1.5-GHz MP processor, he said. McLaughlin acknowledged that the company has heard complaints about 32-bit application performance under Itanium 2 CPUs and is responding.
"Certainly Intel, through its normal development process, will improve performance," he said.
Most Intel customers have been saying that when they're ready to go to 64-bit processors, they'll be moving ahead with 64-bit applications, McLaughlin said. A major reason for incorporating the upcoming emulation layer is to allow customers to continue to use old 32-bit applications that haven't yet been ported to 64-bit use.
Intel said Itanium processors already run 32-bit applications natively, but analysts and others have said that the real-world performance hasn't been awe-inspiring, according to Rich Partridge, an analyst at D.H. Brown Associates Inc. "It runs, but does it run fast enough to satisfy you?" he said. "It won't necessarily run at speed."
By announcing the software upgrade, Intel is moving "to address what is perceived to be a problem," Partridge said. "The perception is that the current hardware [support] for 32-bit applications on Itanium 2 doesn't give full performance."
Instead, the chips are engineered to work best with the new generation of 64-bit applications that are beginning to make their way onto the market.
However, that has apparently opened a marketing opportunity for Intel competitor Advanced Micro Devices Inc., which released its new Opteron 64-bit server processor line this week (see story). In addition to running 64-bit applications, users of the new Opteron CPUs will be able to run older 32-bit applications at speeds comparable to their performance on older x86 32-bit hardware or faster, according to the company.
Charles King, an analyst at Sageza Group Inc. in Mountain View, Calif., said Intel's move to improve 32-bit performance on Itanium is particularly notable since it comes during the week of the Opteron launch.
"That probably woke them up a little bit," King said of positive reaction to the new and flexible AMD line in the marketplace. "I think Intel is going to be perceived ... [as] trying to play catch-up or basically trying to salvage what may have been a PR coup on AMD's part" in gaining Opteron endorsements from major partners including IBM and SuSE Linux.