Flawed jewel in Intel's crown

Another year of Sun before Itanium cloud.

Is Intel losing its touch, or does it have less confidence in the newly-launched Itanium processor than some if its predecessors?

The reason I ask is that if you don't know already, Itanium was launched last month. That's right, the brightest jewel in the future crown of Intel has arrived with no more than a whimper.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Itanium supposed to mark the day when Intel could really claim to compete with the Risc boys? Was it not to spark the arrival of 64bit Windows platforms that would elevate Microsoft to the heady heights of true enterprise computing?

Some companies have jumped on the bandwagon, but they are greatly outnumbered by those that have not. Hewlett Packard (HP) has been shouting enthusiastically about IA64 since it started work on the project with Intel, but the likes of Compaq and Dell have stayed conspicuously silent.

McAfee, Macromedia and Red Hat have all announced plans to support - or have already included support for - Itanium in their software. But it seems they are in the minority.

Intel doesn't seem too bothered by this and has referred to the transition to IA64 as something of a "rolling thunder launch".

HP has announced three new servers based on Itanium, two of which will be shipping by the first week of July. But industry experts believe that Itanium is not worth the effort and advises customers to wait for McKinley, the second-generation IA64 processor scheduled for the first half of 2002.

We have already waited seven years for Intel and HP to put their heads together and try to undermine fierce rival Sun. One more year will not make much difference to those that base their networks on Microsoft and IA technology.

There is a limited edition version of 64bit Windows available to those that really want it, but it would be advisable to wait for the testing process to be fully complete and adopt Whistler, which will incorporate the 64bit version of Windows, and McKinley when they become available.

This delay will do Sun Microsystems no harm. Although established as the developer and supplier of high-end enterprise-class computing systems, the threat from a 64bit Intel and Microsoft architecture is formidable.

Intel has set its sights on the high-end processor market to try and regain some of the millions it feels have been swelling the coffers of Sun and IBM for too long.

Only when Intel feels it has got it completely and utterly right, will the parties really begin.

And if the likes of Intel, Microsoft and HP succeed in knocking Sun off the pedestal it has created for itself at the pinnacle of high-end computing, what a party it will be.

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