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Conclusion
Before you start typing your "Intel sucks 
" reaction it's advisable to read this last part as well. There are a number of points that can explain the bad performance in our benchmarks.
Pre-release hardware:
The Itanium we tested is, as you know, a 667MHz model. The versions that will be released will run at 733 and 800MHz. That extra clockspeed will not mean that the Itanium suddenly becomes a lot faster but we should assume that the final version could undergo other changes, like a faster revision of the core or a faster IA-32 decoder. It's pretty unlikely that the performance will suddenly increase a lot but it wouldn't be a surprise if it would increase.
Pre-release software:
Windows Whistler itself is still beta, but also the IA-64 HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) is probably nowhere near finished. Microsoft will probably improve and optimize many things before the release, which will also result in better performance. Remember, we don't know in what part the slowness is caused by the software and in what part by the hardware.
Lack of IA-64 benchmarks:
We could not run IA-64 software on the system, simply because it was nowhere to be found. It should be remembered that the Itanium was 100% developed for IA-64 and that the IA-32 decoder was only unimportant to Intel. The true power of the cpu lies not in the tests that we conducted but in the applications that are still being developed. Early benchmarks with IA-64 code on Itanium systems have shown that the new architecture is certainly capable of blowing the P4 out of the water with half the clockspeed.
From our own experience we can only talk about Whistler, the only piece of Itanium software that we've been able to check out. The operating system ran smooth, which at least leads us to conclude that the Itanium in IA-64 mode is at least as fast as a Pentium III or Athlon at the same clockspeed.
Itanium as part of a larger whole:
The Itanium may not have an ideal performance yet and no ideal price/performance at all but that's never been Intels goal. The first IA-64 processor was made to prove that it is possible and to develop software on it. The Itanium is no more than a first try. The second generation, McKinley will also live its life in extremely expensive database clusters. Not until 3 or 4 years from now will the successors to the Itanium enter the homes and that is enough time to improve the IA-32 performance. The introduction of the new 64 bit EPIC architecture is without a doubt the biggest and longest Intel project ever and the Itanium is just a first start for what awaits us.
Conclusion:
The IA-64 architecture is promising because of the revolutionary EPIC features that will enable us to build bigger and more powerful computers in the future. However there is still a long way to go and before the bad IA-32 performance of the first chip disappoints you have to look at the bigger picture. You won't be seeing this at home anytime soon after all:
Finally, we would like to thank the person who made this review possible, his name has to be kept secret, but we know who you are! We would like to thank gollem and Majic for translating the article.
" reaction it's advisable to read this last part as well. There are a number of points that can explain the bad performance in our benchmarks.
Pre-release hardware:
The Itanium we tested is, as you know, a 667MHz model. The versions that will be released will run at 733 and 800MHz. That extra clockspeed will not mean that the Itanium suddenly becomes a lot faster but we should assume that the final version could undergo other changes, like a faster revision of the core or a faster IA-32 decoder. It's pretty unlikely that the performance will suddenly increase a lot but it wouldn't be a surprise if it would increase.
Pre-release software:
Windows Whistler itself is still beta, but also the IA-64 HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) is probably nowhere near finished. Microsoft will probably improve and optimize many things before the release, which will also result in better performance. Remember, we don't know in what part the slowness is caused by the software and in what part by the hardware.
Lack of IA-64 benchmarks:
We could not run IA-64 software on the system, simply because it was nowhere to be found. It should be remembered that the Itanium was 100% developed for IA-64 and that the IA-32 decoder was only unimportant to Intel. The true power of the cpu lies not in the tests that we conducted but in the applications that are still being developed. Early benchmarks with IA-64 code on Itanium systems have shown that the new architecture is certainly capable of blowing the P4 out of the water with half the clockspeed.
From our own experience we can only talk about Whistler, the only piece of Itanium software that we've been able to check out. The operating system ran smooth, which at least leads us to conclude that the Itanium in IA-64 mode is at least as fast as a Pentium III or Athlon at the same clockspeed.
Itanium as part of a larger whole:
The Itanium may not have an ideal performance yet and no ideal price/performance at all but that's never been Intels goal. The first IA-64 processor was made to prove that it is possible and to develop software on it. The Itanium is no more than a first try. The second generation, McKinley will also live its life in extremely expensive database clusters. Not until 3 or 4 years from now will the successors to the Itanium enter the homes and that is enough time to improve the IA-32 performance. The introduction of the new 64 bit EPIC architecture is without a doubt the biggest and longest Intel project ever and the Itanium is just a first start for what awaits us.
Conclusion:
The IA-64 architecture is promising because of the revolutionary EPIC features that will enable us to build bigger and more powerful computers in the future. However there is still a long way to go and before the bad IA-32 performance of the first chip disappoints you have to look at the bigger picture. You won't be seeing this at home anytime soon after all:
 |
Finally, we would like to thank the person who made this review possible, his name has to be kept secret, but we know who you are! We would like to thank gollem and Majic for translating the article.
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