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September 15, 2005 11:19 AM PDT
Dell shuttering Itanium server business
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A representative with Round Rock, Texas-based Dell said Thursday that an Itanium transition is under way now. Itanium servers are no longer promoted on Dell's Web site, which now directs attention solely to servers using Intel's Xeon. But Itanium-based models such as the PowerEdge 7250 can be found by searching.
Though Dell remains the largest seller of Intel processors, the decision to drop Itanium has not caused widespread panic at Intel.
"Losing Dell as an Itanium customer is unfortunate, but frankly, we see their impact as negligible," Intel representative Erica Fields said.
The writing was on the wall for Dell and Itanium once Intel started aiming the processor at large multiprocessor systems instead of the broader server market. For one thing, Dell has
More recent decisions at Microsoft also reinforce Dell's direction. A coming version of Windows Server 2003 called R2 is geared for smaller servers and won't support Itanium, and the next Windows server operating system, code-named
Dell's interest in Itanium has ranged all the way from lukewarm to complete indifference. In November 2001, Joe Marengi, the co-manager for Dell Americas, explained that interest among customers for Itanium servers was "
"The investment involved in the transition in huge," he said at the time. "I don't see the speed and benefit to what the processor brings to the equation," he added. Itanium had also been subject to several delays.
In the summer of 2002, Dell was still in wait-and-see mode. But, by November 2002, Marengi said, Dell had a change of heart and would begin to produce
Dell isn't the only one to turn its back on Itanium. IBM this year
Itanium allies have also withdrawn from other markets. In 2004,
Still-active developments
Despite the problems, allies are still plugging away at Itanium. A number of companies are expected to announce an
The alliance made up of Intel, HP, Microsoft, Oracle and others is expected to sponsor porting events to help programmers bring their software to the processor and find combinations of Itanium hardware and software for various tasks.
And there are years of new Itanium chips planned from Intel, starting with the first dual-core model later this year. That chip, code-named Montecito, will more than double performance over the current "
After Montecito comes a derivative called Montvale, as well as a new four-core design called Tukwila and another four-core design called
See more CNET content tagged:
Intel Itanium,
Joe Marengi,
Intel Itanium 2,
multiprocessor,
Unisys Corp.
AMD on the otherhand made an excellent business decision with their Opteron chip by keeping with the x86 instruction set. So, not only can the Opteron run the new 64-bit software, it is also fully backwards compatible with all previous x86 software at full speed. Something that Intel seems to have forgot.
Sorry Intel, but if I have to spend many thousands of dollars to buy all new hardware and software just to have a 64-bit platform, I'm going to AMD because their solution is more cost effective.
AMD on the otherhand made an excellent business decision with their Opteron chip by keeping with the x86 instruction set. So, not only can the Opteron run the new 64-bit software, it is also fully backwards compatible with all previous x86 software at full speed. Something that Intel seems to have forgot.
Sorry Intel, but if I have to spend many thousands of dollars to buy all new hardware and software just to have a 64-bit platform, I'm going to AMD because their solution is more cost effective.
But this revelation blows me away as the norm for Dell is "what ever you say Mr. Otellini", it's as if Dell is just a subsidary of Intel.
Bottom Line: Intel when are you going to cut your losses and give it up? Take the resources your are devoting to the Itanic and place them in developing better solutions to your current bottlenecks in the x86 area.
Fred Dunn