Intel touts 64-bit extensions

Intel’s next-generation Xeon processor and future versions of its Prescott Pentium 4 processors will come with 64-bit extensions technology, Intel CEO Craig Barrett announced at the Intel Developer Forum last week in San Francisco.

Intel joins Advanced Micro Devices in releasing a processor with 64-bit extensions technology, which has attracted the interest of major server vendors such as IBM and Sun Microsystems.

Intel’s 64-bit extension technology will be software-compatible with AMD’s 64-bit extensions, Barrett said. There will be a few architectural differences that will not affect application compatibility, he said.

Code-named Nocona, the first Intel chip to take advantage of the 64-bit extensions technology is the next generation of the Xeon DP processors for workstations and low-end servers. Nocona is scheduled for release in the second quarter.

Not unexpectedly, Microsoft gave the upcoming products a hearty endorsement. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said the company has already shipped the latest build of Windows that contains those extensions to 5,000 developers. Microsoft’s four versions of Windows for 64-bit extended systems, which include Windows XP and Datacenter Server, are expected to arrive sometime in the second half of this year, according to a company representative. Microsoft currently offers 64-bit  Windows for Intel’s Itanium-based servers only.

IBM also threw its support behind the new products with the intention of bolstering a number of its server-based strategies targeted at corporate accounts.

Intel has been notoriously reluctant to address the issue of 64-bit extensions technology since AMD announced it would release such a product. Intel executives and technical staff members were willing to talk about the subject in theoretical terms but seemed always to hedge their bets on whether the technology would find a market.

With IBM and Sun backing 64-bit extensions in the form of AMD’s Opteron server processor and Hewlett-Packard signaling its interest in 64-bit extensions technology, Intel had to put the technology on its public road map, said Gordon Haff, an analyst at Illuminata.

“This was inevitable. The world is going to move to 64-bit, and the market has indicated there is a groundswell of interest for low-end servers and workstations with this technology,” Haff said.

Some of the reluctance to discuss extensions technology was born of the Itanium project, which Intel at one point envisioned taking over the server market, Haff said.

But IT managers have not flocked to the 64-bit Itanium servers, in part because any 32-bit applications they want to run on an Itanium server have to be rewritten for the new instruction set to take advantage of the performance capabilities.

Itanium does run 32-bit applications, but the performance of those applications does not compare to Xeon and AMD’s Opteron. 

As more applications are developed for Itanium, more  companies will take advantage of its performance, Intel’s Barrett said. The Nocona processor will allow companies to develop 64-bit applications while maintaining their existing base of 32-bit applications, he added.

Barrett also showcased several other technologies coming down the road from Intel, such as wireless USB technology using a digital video recorder and a PC, and its Florence laptop reference design. Florence is designed to allow notebook users to take advantage of an external screen for data and the gamut of wireless technologies, including GPRS (General Packet Radio Services) and Bluetooth.