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Date:      Sat, 18 Nov 2000 14:36:30 -0800
From:      Kent Stewart <kstewart@urx.com>
To:        Jason Halbert <res02jw5@gte.net>
Cc:        questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Pentium Itanium
Message-ID:  <3A17046E.3F566B53@urx.com>
References:  <3A16FF7A.56889031@gte.net>

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Jason Halbert wrote:
> 
> Hey Everyone!
> :)
> 
> Do you think that FreeBSD supports the new Pentium Itanium 64-bit
> processor?  I looked at the Intel website and they say UNIX does
> support it.  Afterall FreeBSD does run on other 64-bit processors.
> I'm not sure if I just wanna go ahead and get a Xeon with a 2MB L2
> cache or wait for the Itanium to come down in price.

If you don't need more than 4GB of memory, the first Itanium's aren't
supposed to be any faster than your Xeon. But then a 1.2GHz AMD
Thunderbird with its multiple pipe lines may be faster than the Xeon. 

I would also bet (but not very much) that the P4 will be much faster
than the Itanium for most applications. The P4 will probably work with
FreeBSD when it is released RSN. I'm not sure where were are at on
having a system for the Itanium. The usual rule is that Intel will
want a small fortune for them and you can out perform them with smp
and one of their considerably less costly cpu's. 

I've used 64-bit for years and I'm not holding my breath on Intel
doing it right on the first chip. They did borrow some of the Alpha
architecture, which has been true-64 bit forever, and that help. My
introduction to 64-bit was a Cray XM/P and we could move Fortran
programs to the Alpha virtually with only a recompile.

As far as the Itanium is concerned, I'm just going to wait and see.

Kent

> 
> *sigh*
> Decisions, decisions...
> 
> Thanks :D
> 
> --
> -------------------------------------------------------
> | Jason P. Halbert                 | res02jw5@gte.net |
> | Transmitter Maintenance Engineer | ICQ#: 86637300   |
> | KDAF-TV WB33                     | DALnet: Push^Pop |
> | KDTX-TV 58                       | (214) 252-3300   |
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> 
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-- 
Kent Stewart
Richland, WA

mailto:kbstew99@hotmail.com
http://kstewart.urx.com/kstewart/index.html
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