Intel throws IA-32 EL at Itanium

Despite the performance promises of 64-bit computing, enterprises and systems vendors have viewed Intel’s Itanium processor family with a great deal of skepticism since its debut in July 2002.

Regardless of excellent performance results, Itanium 2 systems have been slow sellers and have suffered from poor top-tier vendor support. In fact, until IBM registered its vote of support for Itanium last week, Hewlett-Packard was the only significant systems builder to support the platform.

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel is now attempting to reverse its fortunes with the pending release of IA-32 Execution Layer, a software program designed to increase the ability of the processor to handle 32-bit applications.

A small portion in the hardware of the Itanium processor currently allows users to run 32-bit applications, but at extremely slow rates unsuitable for even moderately important applications.

IA-32 EL (Execution Layer) will make its debut on Madison midyear, the next release of Itanium. The software will allow 32-bit applications to be run on Itanium at speeds equivalent to a 1.5GHz Xeon MP processor, Intel said.

IA-32 EL might be enough to tempt enterprises to start thinking about Itanium systems, said Nathan Brookwood, a principal analyst for Insight 64 in Saratoga, Calif.“For most customers, having to move everything to 64-bits is a big problem. [IA-32 EL] is a big step forward — if it works,” he said.

But the case for Itanium is colored by the need to recompile multiple applications. Because of Itanium’s EPIC (Explicitly Parallel Instruction Computing) architecture, companies must port every application they want to run on an Itanium server to EPIC if they want to take advantage of the processor’s 64-bit performance.

With IA-32 EL, companies won’t have to change some of their 32-bit applications to use an Itanium server, but it will be at the expense of overall 32-bit performance, said Dean McCarron, principal analyst at Mercury Research in Cave Creek, Ariz.

“If what you care about is running your 32-bit applications at a competitive level, you should buy Xeon,” McCarronsaid. “Itanium’s 32-bit code performance is not competitive with 32-bit specific processors, and even when this compatibility is installed, that’s still going to be true.”

Advanced Micro Devices has come up with another way to move customers to 64-bit computing. Its Opteronprocessor can run both 32-bit and 64-bit applications, and is designed to let customers maintain high levels of 32-bit performance until they are ready to move up to 64-bits.

Intel’s IA-32 Execution Layer is not meant to permit Itanium to perform a similar function. “Itanium is designed to be a 64-bit processor first and foremost. The 32-bit support is provided more for customers who are migrating” from 32-bit applications to 64-bit ones, rather than customers who are planning to maintain 32-bit applications on Itanium, said Barbara Grimes, an Intel spokeswoman.

AMD and Intel are unlikely to stack the two processors against each other for comparison because they are different animals.

“Opteronis industry-leading, 32-bit performance, with adequate 64-bit performance,” Brookwoodsaid. “Itanium is adequate 32-bit performance, with industry-leading 64-bit performance. They compete in very different segments.”

As far as IBM is concerned, Itanium strengths are such that sources said the company planned to release a server based on the 64-bit chip.

While IBM has not detailed the ship date for such a server, it demonstrated its x450 server at last year’s at LinuxWorldConference & Expo, claiming it would feature between four and eight Itanium 2 processors.

Rumors of the 64-bit Intel server will compete with IBM’s own line of 64-bit servers based on its Power4 architecture.

IBM did build a cluster of Itanium 2-based servers for The National Center of Supercomputing Applications last year, but it remained quiet about its plans for the Itanium 2 processor.

Separately, Hewlett-Packard said last week it would ship two Itanium 2-based workstations for the high-performance computing market that run Microsoft’s new Windows XP 64-Bit Edition Version 2003 operating system.

The workstations are the first HP products to make use of the new operating system tailored for Itanium products. Microsoft will release a 64-bit version for AMD’s Opteronprocessor later this year.