[Info-vax] x86-64-based Superdomes on the way (says HP)

[JF Mezei]

A more important snippet from that article:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11/22/hp_to_make_x86_superdomes/

And in fact, Whitman hinted about it yesterday when participating in her
first conference call with Wall Street analysts to go over HP's Q4
financial results – which, by the way, were not good for BCS, which had
a 23 per cent revenue drop to $535m.

"The BCS business is a declining business. It is a slow decline, but I
don't think you're going to see an accelerating growth rate in that
business," she said. "And so we just have to manage that as best we can
and invest in R&D so we get to a new platform as fast as we possibly can
that allows us to service the clients that need this kind of power."




Notes:

argument that customers are asking for 8086 based superdomes running Linux

argument that BCS is a declining business, and we won't see accelerating
growth rate in that business.

later in the article, the argment that BCS customers don't want a
platform transition and want a stable environment.


The conclusion:

Poulson, yes. Kitson, probably not.


If HP-UX VMS and Tandem customers do want their OS to make it to the
8086,  now is the time for those customers to get together and make a
VERY PUBLIC statement that they want HP to port teir OS to x86. Only by
publicly denying Bartlett's "customers don't want it" will HP change its
mind.


As it stands, the death sensence has now been announced for those 3 OSs.



When Tukwila came out, HP didn't bother with performance tests. If
Poulson ends up being as unimpressive compared to whatever 8086 will be
available at the same time, then it will make it quite easy for HP and
Intel toannounce the end of IA64.

In 2004, when LaCarly and Intel announced the 64 bit 8086 with the CSI
(now Quickpath), I had prediced the end of IA64 by 2007 when those would
come out. I was wrong. But now, it appears the end of the line for IA64
is coming.