Itanium CPU's Mcmillan Characteristics and Performance

Itanium CPU Itanium's design, the product of a partnership between Intel and HP, revolves around on a concept called EPIC (explicitly parallel instruction computing). All modern CPUs have some capacity of running multiple instructions from memory simultaneously. Most CPUs are looking for convenience to process instructions in parallel. EPIC shifts efficiency for this analysis from the CPU hardware to the programming language compiler used to effect the application. As compilers get smarter and the Itanium platform evolves, EPIC's true ability is unveiled.

Intel's niche marketing campaign, which targets scientific, digital-media, cryptographic, large-database, and Web-caching uses, came about when the company realized Itanium's effectiveness of floating-point math and data handling. Floating-point calculations are used in a variety of things ranging from encryption to digital video encoding. Intel claims that the Itanium CPU accomplishes as many as 8 floating-point operations at the same time compared to two for its 32-bit CPUs. And with four processors running at 733 MHz, that's a lot of floating-point strength in one box.

The Itanium CPU's premium value lies in its assurance to bring openness to the former restrictive Unix server and workstation markets. Every server based on Intel's affordable 64-bit platform will combine enterprise-class dependability and management features with the broadest range of Operating System and application choices usable to any system in its class. Companies running commercial Unix (notably HP-UX) or Linux applications stand to benefit from Itanium mostly.

How many Intel Itanium processors will it take to execute a trillion floating-point operations per second? About one-third as many 1-GHz Pentium III chips as it takes to reach 1 TFLOPS, according to developers of a large Linux cluster at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications in Urbana-Champaign, Ill. The center plans to install the 64-bit chips practically as soon as Intel Corp. introduces them later this year.

The hybrid cluster of 32-bit Pentium IIIs and 64-bit Itaniums will be the "first of its kind," said Dave Gelardi, director of deep computing for IBM Corp., maker of the cluster platform. NCSA and IBM will install the 2-TFLOPS cluster in two stages, based on CPU architecture." Bibliography http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/News/Press/Appearances/cluster/gcn2.html The McKinley milestone Intel draws out Itanium arrival Stephen Shankland Staff Writer, CNET News.com March 1, 2001, 4:05 PM PT 1995-2002 CNET Networks, inc. All rights reserved.

http://news.com.com/2100-1001-253431.html Roots in Performance Itanium Technology Guide by Jon Simon, December 4, 2000 http://www.sharkyextreme.com/hardware/guides/itanium/ 64-Bit CPUs: What You Need to Know Copyright.