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Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.cs.su.oz.au!inferno.mpx.com.au!news.ci.com.au!brian.telstra.net!act.news.telstra.net!vic.news.telstra.net!news.mira.net.au!pumpkin.pangea.ca!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!howland.erols.net!infeed2.internetmci.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!in2.uu.net!165.254.2.53!nonexistent.com!not-for-mail From: le@put.com (Louis Epstein) Subject: Re: The Window to Kill Windows?? X-Newsreader: TIN [UNIX 1.3 950824BETA PL0] X-Complaints-To: Email abuse@news2.new-york.net if this posting is inappropriate Lines: 52 Organization: Putnam Internet Services Message-ID: <EDDwM3.LCv@nonexistent.com> References: <EDCIDs.K2I@nonexistent.com> <5qgo0m$pes@tooting.netapp.com> X-Trace: 869010266 11446 le [165.254.191.2] X-Nntp-Posting-Host: main.put.com Date: Tue, 15 Jul 1997 23:44:27 GMT Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:44500 Guy Harris (guy@netapp.com) wrote: : Louis Epstein <le@put.com> wrote: : >I note in the new PC Computing(the one that says the Cyrix M2 "should : >debut by the end of this year",as if it weren't already shipping) that : >they forecast the Intel 64-bit CPU codenamed Merced will be out in 1999, : >but Microsoft will take quite a while after that to come up with a 64-bit : >OS that will let it run at its full potential.(they see NT 5.0 as a : >"Unix killer" before then,though). : > : >Will 64-bit FreeBSD 4.x be available in this interval to blow NT away, : : 64-bit FreeBSD 4.x won't help there if it doesn't run on IA64 machines. Well,FreeBSD has always run on Intel machines... : When there'll be a 64-bit FreeBSD for IA64 depends on, among other : things, when: : : the IA64 architecture spec is available; : : compilers and linkers for IA64 usable by FreeBSD are available : (e.g., GCC); What's the lead time been in the past? : specs for Merced are available; : : specs for support chips used with Merced are available; : : people have time to implement stuff from those specs; : : machines are available to test what they've implemented. Would Intel want to keep people from maximizing the performance of their processors? (Of course,who knows,AMD or Cyrix may beat them to the 64-bit market, hopefully not with an incompatible product...but as long as a native OS can be made for the 64-bit chip and released while Microsoft is still selling only a 32-bit product,the window is there). : Whether FreeBSD - or Linux, or, heck, even the SCO/HP UNIX-of-the-future : planned for IA64 - for IA64 will "kill" NT is another matter; has : anything touted as an "XXX-killer" has ever succeeded in killing the XXX : it was allegedly going to kill? Well,the "Unix-killers" are at least as doomed. (Doesn't SCO already have a 64-bit Unix?And I hear there is a 64-bit NetBSD easily portable to FreeBSD...but something directly optimized for the new chips will likely have the biggest performance advantage over runnning NT in a 32-bit virtual machine).