Getting [OT] Re: [linux-audio-dev] Athlon64 .. performance boost ?

[Robert Jonsson]

Hi,

>
> PS2: I see a big problem with the "schism" of the 64bit instruction sets
> (between Intel Itanium and AMD64).
>
> Basically it puts Microsoft in an uncomfortable position:
> - increases the amount of development resources
> - incompatibilities between Itanium and AMD 64:  if you bought MS Office
> for AMD64 it will not run on Itanium and viceversa.
> Users will say "hey, it's always windows why is this incompatible ?"
> AMD is risking too because users usually stick with the strongest one
> thus it could be that when Itanium arrives on the
> desktop it will eclipse the AMD64 because of these Windows
> incompatibility problems.

>From what I've heard there is likely not going to be a problem. There just 
won't be many desktop utilizations of Itanium. It is simply not targetet 
towards this kind of thing (which is reflected in the pricing). 

Instead it is quite likely that intel will release their own take of a 64-bit 
x86 cpu.... but... this will probably, once again, mean that there are two 
BIG cpu's in the wild that support "similar" instructionsets. No telling what 
that might do to fragment the desktop-space...

>
> Of course in the server domain the instruction set does not matter that
> much but in the desktop field it matters alot.
>
> What will happen in your opinion ? Will Microsoft be tempted to stick to
> the Wintel paradigm or will they try to avoid it
> in order to not risking loosing sales to the competition (aka Linux).
> It's a complex equation I see no easy solution.
>
> Perhaps Linux will be the salvation of AMD64 on the Desktop (if it can
> get a foothold in that domain) ?

I don't know if you read about the recent flurry of live-game-cd's. When it 
comes to gaming, people has always been keen on getting the latest hardware 
to improve their FPS count :). In this particular situation they are in a bit 
of a problem though. Window doesn't support 64-bit for another year (possibly 
shorter but I doubt it). 
Since Linux is already available in 64-bit versions it has started to happen 
that gaming firms (especially the ones who make free games, but I'm sure 
others will follow) are starting to produce linux based live-game-cd's with a 
specific game preinstalled. And that game is ofcourse compiled for 64-bit to 
maximize performance!
The entire concept makes me all warm inside ;-P, such a great idea.


/Robert