Intel Corp (INTC)

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Sgolds, Re: ClearSpeed floating point processor - threat to Itanium?

Hardly. I spoke to Simon McIntosh-Smith for a while at the expo, and his vision for the chip is very different. I can see definite strengths, and fortunately for him, his chip came back from manufacturing only a week before MPF, so he was able to discuss some test results. The C++ programming tools are also noteworthy, since chips of this nature are often times hard to configure.

At any rate, he's not looking to compete with Intel, but rather to complement Intel hardware. He's actually a fan of Itanium architecture, and we had some interesting discussions with where Itanium may be going in the future. I'd like to see him successful, but it will depend on what kind of end user solutions he can successfully demonstrate. Let's face it - it's a niche product right now. The market does need the floating point performance he can deliver... but it's like having the hamburger meat without the buns.