News Item Dated: 03 October 2002
From: NY Times (09/29/02); P. 3-1; Markoff, John; Lohr, Steve

Intel and Hewlett-Packard have a lot riding on the adoption of their Itanium chip technology, which promises high-speed 64-bit processing. The development and commercialization of Itanium has taken 10 years and cost an estimated $5 billion; its failure would have drastic repercussions on HP and Intel, while Silicon Valley's confidence could be throttled to the point that other major computer design projects will never be pursued. Skeptics are uncertain about the technology, which suffered a three-year delay and is being launched in the midst of a recession. "Every big computing disaster has come from taking too many ideas and putting them in one place, and the Itanium is exactly that," contends Microsoft researcher Gordon Bell. Predictions from Google CEO Eric Schmidt that power efficiency rather than speed will dictate future computing design could foil Itanium.

Yet despite all these warnings, Intel manager Michael J. Fister has faith in the technology, and reports that it is on track; he says that bad memories of Itanium's previous failures will be erased with next year's debut of Itanium 2, and proclaims that "We're seeding an architecture that is going to last for two decades." He adds that Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, and other companies will soon release Itanium software applications, but looming on the horizon is the premiere of the 64-bit Opteron from Advanced Micro Devices. Dell's interest in Opteron has prompted Intel to develop Yamhill, a 64-bit extension of its X68 Pentium chip. Meanwhile, the opportunities for HP include gaining a lead on rivals such as IBM and Dell, and becoming the leading packager and integrator of Itanium-based systems.

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