Intel Corp (INTC)

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Subzero, actually, that's GREAT news.

Oracle 10i and Linux Advance Server are some of the first real full version database and OS suites for Itanium 2. I'm hoping that the full versions of Windows and SQL show up later this year or early next year.

If you look at comparable systems, in TPC-C, the fastest system based on Xeon is the newest released 2.0GHz Xeon MP with the IBM x440 platform. Using that, IBM is able to get 74,206 TpmC at 5.75 US$/TpmC. The new Itanium 2 submission, though achieves 80,494 TpmC at 4.84 US$/TpmC, making it the highest performing 4-way server with the best price/performance.

http://www.tpc.org/tpcc/results/tpcc_result_detail.asp?id=102111202
http://www.tpc.org/tpcc/results/tpcc_result_detail.asp?id=102110405

In SAP, a 4-way Xeon MP 2.0GHz system from HP scores 435, while an 8-way IBM x440 based Xeon MP 1.6GHz system scores 575. Yet, a the 4-way Itanium 2 system running Oracle outperforms both of these and achieves a score of 600.

http://www.sap.com/benchmark/pdf/cert6302.pdf
http://www.sap.com/benchmark/pdf/cert5502.pdf
http://www.sap.com/benchmark/pdf/cert4002.pdf

Oracle has given Itanium 2 an even farther lead on the benchmarks, proving the superiority of Itanium architecture - and Madison isn't even out, yet. With double the cache and possibly 50% more frequency, Madison should carry Itanium 2 quite far. I'm hoping that the eventual availability of this new software and the newly disclosed benchmarks will spur some demand for Itanium 2, since it has already proven to be an excellent platform choice for performance and price/performance.

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