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http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=1721
Intel Takes the Slow Road to 64-bit Desktop Computing
By Remy Davison, Insanely Great Mac
February 21st 2003
IBM, AMD 64-bit thrust leaves Intel on the back foot.
As IBM releases its pSeries 630 server featuring the POWER4, and AMD prepares to
unleash its Athlon64, the Intel juggernaut seems to be doing little to bring 64-bit
computing to the desktop.
The PowerPC 970, IBM's dekstop version of its Power4 chip, is widely tipped to be
installed in shipping Macs within 12 months, while AMD releases its 64-bit Athlon in
September this year. Both chips feature backward compatbility with 32-bit applications.
Currently, both the Pentium 4 and recent Windows OS releases have been 64-bit; thus,
the programming hours required to shift Windows to 64-bit would be enormous. Apple
faces a similar hurdle with OS X, but the project would not be as large. On the other
hand, Apple does have fewer engineering resources than Microsoft.
Intel's Itanium, the 64-bit chip it sells for servers, has not seen the light of day
on the desktop. Intel reasons that 64-bit desktop computing is simply more than the
office or consumer requires. While 64-bit chips can handle more than 4GB of RAM.
However, Justin Ranter, a senior fellow at Intel, was quoted in the article as saying,
"It could be the end of the decade" before mainstream desktops need more than 4GB of
memory, one of the chief reasons to move to 64-bit chips." Furthermore, Intel
President Paul Otellini said that Intel may not be compelled to provide 64-bit chips
for desktop PCs until 2008-2009.
Intel also identified RAM module sizes as an impediment to higher memory capacities in
desktops. Keeping modules' size down while attempting to stack 2 or more GB is
becoming increasingly difficult.
Intel's Itanium also uses a lot of power, which rules it out for portables, until - if
- the company makes a low-octane version.
Conversely, IBM's PowerPC 970 will consume far fewer watts than any Itanium or member
of the Pentium family, a long-held advantage of the PowerPC over the x86 architecture.
IBM are also continuing development of its POWER family of microprocessors, with the
Power5, due sometime in 2004, which will be available in both server and desktop
editions, like the Power4.
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