Intel to chip away at Itanium prices

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Architecture Issue

The Itanium and Opteron are based on seperate architectures. Big Endian and Little Endian "address byte ordering". Itanium was never designed to to replace X86 systems, but to replace or to rival Sparc and Power systems in the Big Endian segment of the market.

For most general application byte ordering is not an issue, but in database systems and other highly structured systems byte ordering is a major concern. One can not just copy an Orcle database from a Sparc system to a X86 based system. The database must be converted to the Endian specific format then migrated. This is also why X86 based programs do not run natively on Itanium systems.

AMD is a direct compeditor to Intel in the Little Endian platform market, where as Intel is the leader in the Little Endian platofrm market. Intel designed the Itanium to move into the Big Endian market, where as AMD designed the Opteron to take market share from Intel in the Little Endian market. Both are smart moves the for the respective companies.

Posted by: rabban192   Posted on: 01/14/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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