Particularly with this kind of niche, this isn't really so much about the box, it's about channels and go-to-market. It's about setting up distribution and supply partners more than it is about the right box. |
People do not typically leave companies if they are deliriously happy with their roles, but sometimes even people who are reasonably content with their jobs find better opportunities that come along. |
People have tried a lot of special purpose processing devices over the years and, with the exceptions of graphics units and arguably floating point units, general purpose processors have always won out in the end. |
Programming Cell is relatively hard. Certainly a higher-level, more abstracted model makes programming a lot easier. |
Software patents are a mess, ... Even if you don't believe in abolishing them entirely, there have been far too many examples of patents being granted even in light of overwhelming evidence of prior art and of dusty old patents on their third owner suddenly being used for a form of blackmail. |
Sun has given a speed boost to its installed base as the company focuses on x64 systems and the forthcoming Niagara processor, |
Sun has to keep up with the other guys. IBM is going to be coming out with the Power5+ soon. The reality is in this industry you have to put a lot of energy into running to stay in place. What happens if you don't make these kinds of advances is you fall behind. So this upgrade is in some respects about maintaining parity with the competition. |
The fact that Itanium didn't take off as expected is really because it is only in certain types of applications [such as databases] that there was a driving need to go beyond 32-bit to the larger memory you see in RISC servers today, ... But 64-bit extensions [to x86] are here, and there is no penalty to having a server that is capable of supporting 64-bit, whether you need it or not. That's the nice thing about the x64 approach. |
The fact that Itanium didn't take off as expected is really because it is only in certain types of applications [such as databases] that there was a driving need to go beyond 32-bit to the larger memory you see in RISC servers today. But 64-bit extensions [to x86] are here, and there is no penalty to having a server that is capable of supporting 64-bit, whether you need it or not. That's the nice thing about the x64 approach. |
The potential here is a lot more efficient use of hardware, better centralized management, and potentially more flexibility with users in that they're not tied to a particular desktop device. I don't believe there's a one-size-fits-all approach, we'll probably end up with a combination of thin clients and various types of fat clients. |
The problem is, to be at that nirvana, Apple would have to have the ISVs increase their investment on Apple hardware, at least in the transition. That is very difficult for Apple. |
They are all comparable in performance for high-end, non-X86 architectures. |
They woke up the sleeping lion. If I were AMD, I'd be looking at where Intel is going and be more than a little concerned. Intel is well on its way to bridging its major deficiencies. … Intel is moving fairly quickly and aggressively toward to closing any gaps it has with AMD, and then AMD is back to competing more or less on a level playing field. And that's where Intel has a big advantage. |
This announcement of yet another no-hassle SPARC system upgrade provides great asset protection to Sun's huge base of applications and customers. |
This is a bigger story for Apple than for Intel. Apple liked Intel's roadmap better than that of Power PC, and the idea is that they will now sell a higher percentage of notebook computers. |