Itanic will use Alpha EV8, SMT features

IT'S NOW AS CLEAR as clear can be - the Alpha is not dead, will not be dead, and will lurk in future Itanium chips beyond Madison.

The most recent presentation seen by the INQUIRER today over the bar of the Porcupine also demonstrates that Compaq has the backing of some of its bigger customers in its move to port its software to the Intalpha platform.

First off, let's get Tru64 Unix out of the way. In the second half of next year, Compaq/Intel will release the Itanium ISV development kit, with V5.2 of T64U aimed at Alpha Marvel Systems, and in 2003 V5.3 supporting Itanic and Alpha systems.

According to the presentation we saw, "Tru64 Unix support for the Itanium is a minor OS release, like supporting any new HW platform, using the same source code and needing a recompile."

The slides we saw say clearly that in 2005 we will see "IPF [Intel] processors with Alpha features", and pictures of the roadmaps go further than that.

When EV7 is produced, the lads and lasses will carry on shrinking the die for years to come, to support various projects. Those EV7-X shrinks continue well through 2007.

There won't be an EV8, but the Itanium that arrives in 2005 will have those features, including simultaneous multi threading (SMT), Alpha GEM technology, IO off chip, and a heap of other good things, widely broadcast to the world already about EV8.

It seems then, that rather than sink the EV8 iceberg, the Itanic mysteriously found itself frozen inside berg - a mystery to behold.

The fact that Intel now has its mitts on Alpha SMT features may also give a spur to its Jackson technology, currently languishing on a Powerpoint presentation somewhere in Santa Clara.