Date: Wed, 7 Jul 1999 22:02:52 -0500 (CDT) From: David Scheidt <dscheidt@enteract.com> To: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> Cc: Yann Ramin <atrus@matadore.montereyhigh.com>, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: IA64 Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.3.96.990707213420.27433B-100000@shell-2.enteract.com> In-Reply-To: <4.2.0.56.19990707200123.00b36480@localhost>
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On Wed, 7 Jul 1999, Brett Glass wrote: > At 12:18 PM 7/7/99 -0500, David Scheidt wrote: > > >The documentation HP and Intel released last month didn't include > >documentation about supervisor mode operation. Unless they have since, > >it would be difficult to do any real work at a kernel port. > > It's relatively easy for serious developers to get the information > from Intel -- under NDA at first, and for publication by the time > anyone can lay hands on a real processor. Signing an NDA to work on source availabe system is silly, unless of course Intel will let you out of it when the make documentation available to the general public. I haven't looked into it, so I can't say anything more. > Work SHOULD be in progress NOW. Otherwise, Linux will indeed > be there first. Linux might get there first anyways. They do have more people doing coding. Of course, if the compilers aren't there when the silicon ships it won't matter. > > >It is also far from obvious that IA64 will fly. > > Intel hasn't had a high-end processor that flopped in 17 years. Intel also hasn't released a processor that was as far ahead of the compiler development. It won't be clear that what Intel can deliver until they ship something. There are lots of cool stuff in IA64, but if Intel can't deliver mostly bug-free chips, for less than a couple times what the equivalent Alpha or PA-RISC costs. This is especially true if the the compilers aren't very good at introduction. David To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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