Interesting read about upcoming K9 processors

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20040726PR202.html

This interview with Tyan president Symon Chang provided the following
quotes:

"Around 2006, when the market moves to AMD's next generation of chips, you
will be able to go over 8-way. What I mean is that with eight sockets, and
dual cores, you then have sixteen processors, but with K9, you'll see it go
over that. I think we'll see a significant increase in the amount of
crossbar switches in the CPU. I'm not up on all the minute details, but you'
ll be able to go over 60 processors without adding any external crossbar
chips. We can do all that within the structure that is being currently
created. The crossbar bar chip is the standard in the mainframe business
whether it is for the Xeon, Opteron or other processors. There are a couple
of versions of the crossbar chip today, but I don't think that anyone is
currently using them for anything in the generic market; these solutions are
really only for the mainframe market. Today's mainframe market with
computers from IBM or Sparc will be using up to and over 128 processors,
with chips such as IBM's 390 microprocessor. These machines are starting
around US$1 million."

That's right over 60 processors without any kind of a special chipset
support!!!

Also he had some opinions about Windows XP64:

"Q: Do you think Microsoft's 64-bit OS will come out on time?

Chang: I hope so. There are delays, but I believe it will. Interestingly
enough, a couple of significant things have happened this year; for example,
Intel's Xeon processor with 64-bit extensions is a reaction to the
unexpected popularity of AMD's Opteron, which put Intel under pressure to
provide a similar solution for the OEM market. If Intel had not reacted, it
would have lost out. Their response was to come out with a 64-bit CPU that
is not optimal, but at least they have it, and I would compare that with
what Microsoft is doing now in the realm of the 64-bit operating system."

Doesn't sound like Chang believes that Microsoft is trying all that hard to
build a 64-bit OS. It's getting something out to show that it isn't behind
the times.

Yousuf Khan

--
Humans: contact me at ykhan at rogers dot com
Spambots: just reply to this email address ;-)

"Yousuf Khan" wrote in message
t.cable.rogers.com...

"Q: Do you think Microsoft's 64-bit OS will come out on time?


Are we still supposed to be excited about a 64-bit desktop OS from MS after
all these years? I heard once it was going to be a slam dunk. Guess
not... :-)

Regards,
Dean

On Mon, 26 Jul 2004 04:47:58 +0000, Dean Kent wrote:

"Yousuf Khan" wrote in message
t.cable.rogers.com...

"Q: Do you think Microsoft's 64-bit OS will come out on time?


Are we still supposed to be excited about a 64-bit desktop OS from MS after
all these years? I heard once it was going to be a slam dunk. Guess
not... :-)

A 64bit OS is a slam dunk, though perhaps not from Micro$hit.
Perhaps politics is involved here? Nah Dean, couldn't be!

BTW, 64bit Linux works fine here! It seems Sun is found the light too.
OTOH, Itanic well never see the light, no matter how hard the pundits push.

--
Keith

"Keith" wrote in message
news
On Mon, 26 Jul 2004 04:47:58 +0000, Dean Kent wrote:


A 64bit OS is a slam dunk, though perhaps not from Micro$hit.
Perhaps politics is involved here? Nah Dean, couldn't be!

I don't think so. More likely Windows is a nightmare to code/modify. Some
people like conspiracy theories, however. :-).


BTW, 64bit Linux works fine here! It seems Sun is found the light too.

Linux isn't Windows, and therefore is a completely different argument. Sun
found religion for the same reason most others do... impending death! g.

OTOH, Itanic well never see the light, no matter how hard the pundits
push.

Unlike Power, which will dominate everywhere, right? No politics here!!!
;-).

Regards,
Dean


--
Keith

"Dean Kent" wrote:

"Keith" wrote in message
news
On Mon, 26 Jul 2004 04:47:58 +0000, Dean Kent wrote:


A 64bit OS is a slam dunk, though perhaps not from Micro$hit.
Perhaps politics is involved here? Nah Dean, couldn't be!

I don't think so. More likely Windows is a nightmare to code/modify. Some
people like conspiracy theories, however. :-).


BTW, 64bit Linux works fine here! It seems Sun is found the light too.

Linux isn't Windows, and therefore is a completely different argument.

Are you being sarcastic? I'd be amazed if Win32 was not 64-bit clean
from day one. The industry was a lot more mature at that point, and
hopefully learned from the migration of 16- to 32-bit...

chrisv wrote:

Are you being sarcastic? I'd be amazed if Win32 was not 64-bit clean
from day one. The industry was a lot more mature at that point, and
hopefully learned from the migration of 16- to 32-bit...

Surely if Win32 were 64-bit clean, MS wouldn't have had to ship separate
Win64 headers, which they did, to the general horror of everyone who
expected a 64-bit "long".

Furthermore, at the time of its inception, it was far more important for
Win32 code to be Win16 clean, and I doubt if MS could produce headers
that are clean for all three sizes simultaneously.

On Wed, 28 Jul 2004 07:45:16 -0500, chrisv
wrote:

"Dean Kent" wrote:

Linux isn't Windows, and therefore is a completely different argument.

Are you being sarcastic?

I don't know whether he's being sarcastic...

I'd be amazed if Win32 was not 64-bit clean
from day one. The industry was a lot more mature at that point, and
hopefully learned from the migration of 16- to 32-bit...

....but I hope you are! :P

--
"Sore wa himitsu desu."
To reply by email, remove
the small snack from address.

On Wed, 28 Jul 2004 03:18:40 +0000, Dean Kent wrote:

"Keith" wrote in message
news
On Mon, 26 Jul 2004 04:47:58 +0000, Dean Kent wrote:


A 64bit OS is a slam dunk, though perhaps not from Micro$hit.
Perhaps politics is involved here? Nah Dean, couldn't be!

I don't think so. More likely Windows is a nightmare to code/modify. Some
people like conspiracy theories, however. :-).

Moi? Come on. Either M$ is incompetent or they're holding back. You
choose!

BTW, 64bit Linux works fine here! It seems Sun is found the light too.

Linux isn't Windows,

No (micro)$hit! Linux doesn't have the corporate skulldugery impeeding
its progress. There is a market, it will fill it. ...kinda like AMD
these days.

and therefore is a completely different argument.
Sun found religion for the same reason most others do... impending
death! g.

Perhaps not impending.

OTOH, Itanic well never see the light, no matter how hard the pundits
push.

Unlike Power, which will dominate everywhere, right?

Well, there is no longer a "Power" architecture (you really should
know by now that that is a silly marketeer's term). If you're
alluding to "PowerPC", well it seems to be invading from top to bottom;
IBM's Power(TM) and blades, Apple G5 and XServe, Nintendo,
PlayStation3, X-Box2, and a ton of embedded stuff.


Yeah, it seems to be doing a tad better than Itanic! ;-)


No politics here!!! ;-).

Who me? o;-)

BTW, Dean a decent newsreader is in order. Lookout sucks.

"Keith" wrote in message
news

Moi? Come on. Either M$ is incompetent or they're holding back. You
choose!

How many Windows programmers does it take to change a lightbulb? ;-).


No (micro)$hit! Linux doesn't have the corporate skulldugery impeeding
its progress. There is a market, it will fill it. ...kinda like AMD
these days.

Far too early to tell for AMD, unfortunately. 15% marketshare is a bit less
than their best. Server segment share is not too shabby, but still a long
way to go to be compared to Linux.


and therefore is a completely different argument.
Sun found religion for the same reason most others do... impending
death! g.

Perhaps not impending.

Hell, they're not only porting Solaris to x86-64, but are considering
PowerWhatever/IPF as well. Sun sees the light, and it is coming from
somewhere else. ;-).


Well, there is no longer a "Power" architecture (you really should
know by now that that is a silly marketeer's term). If you're
alluding to "PowerPC", well it seems to be invading from top to bottom;
IBM's Power(TM) and blades, Apple G5 and XServe, Nintendo,
PlayStation3, X-Box2, and a ton of embedded stuff.


Yeah, it seems to be doing a tad better than Itanic! ;-)

It has impressive numbers, for sure. What happened to SPEC int, though?



No politics here!!! ;-).

Who me? o;-)

BTW, Dean a decent newsreader is in order. Lookout sucks.

So I've heard. I haven't made the investment (timewise) to put Linux on,
and don't have the funds to upgrade my K7 box to a K8 yet. I figure to do
that all at the same time - will you stop your whining then? :-) Besides,
I keep hoping IBM will let me play with a Thinkpad with FLEX-ES and z/OS on
it (or they approve z/OS to run on Hercules along with an affordable
single-user license) so I can pretend I am on a *real* computer while at
home... g.

Regards,
Dean

Keith wrote:
BTW, 64bit Linux works fine here! It seems Sun is found the light
too. OTOH, Itanic well never see the light, no matter how hard the
pundits push.

It would be supremely embarrassing to Microsoft if Sun gets Solaris for
Opteron out before Windows.

Yousuf Khan