Intel: We Will "Blow Away" the PowerPC 970


Despite Apple's likely adoption of IBM's 64-bit PowerPC 970 later this year, Intel boasts that its forthcoming Itanium will "blow away" any power advantage the 970 may have, according to a story at Newsfactor.

Intel's next version of its Itanium chip, code-named 'Deerfield,' is scheduled for a developer preview in February. The company claims that the Xeon, which can execute 74 fewer instructions simultaneously than the 970, will trump the PowerPC chip, although Intel did not announce any numbers.

The 970 also holds considerable advantages over the Xeon in terms of its power consumption, which could make a low-power 970 suitable for portable applications, while high-octane versions can run servers and desktops alike.

Nevertheless, analysts do not think that the PowerPC 970 can make serious inroads into Intel's dominance. The key factor is the standardization of the Intel instruction set, with OEMs queueing up to use Itanium 2.

However, an IDC analyst argues that Linux's ability to run on 37 different chips means Intel's instruction set is less important. The barrier to real PowerPC v. Intel competition is IBM's reluctance to enter the chip market feet first.

Analysis: True enough. IBM has never been a chip company, but more of an solution company. That's a business they leave to Motorola to lose money at. Dominant Intel may be, but we find it interesting that Intel isn't exactly falling over itself to shout out how many gigaflops Itanium 2 can do. Nor, understandably enough, how many fewer clock cycles than the P4 it's going to be running. After all, when you invest that much in clock speed marketing, it's not a great idea to tell everyone, as if you're Dr. Evil, that your new chips run at "...1 GHz..."