Intel and Microsoft have released software designed to
improve the performance of Windows applications designed for 32-bit
processors when they are running on Intel's 64-bit Itanium 2
processors.
Several years in development, the IA-32 Execution Layer (EL)
software is slated for inclusion in Microsoft Windows Server 2003
Service Pack 1, which is expected in the second half of this year,
but it can now be downloaded for Window Server 2003 Enterprise
Edition, Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition, and Windows XP
64-bit Edition.
Linux versions of the IA-32 EL are also expected later this year
from SuSE Linux and Red Hat.
The software will let 32-bit applications run at 50% to 60% the
speed of their 64-bit equivalents on Itanium processors. This means
that, for example, an Itanium system that scored a SPECint base
benchmark of 1300 running a 64-bit version of the benchmark
software, would score approximately 700 running a 32-bit version
with the IA-32 EL software.
Intel will improve the IA-32 EL's performance until it
approaches 70% of Itanium's 64-bit performance, said Mike Fister,
the senior vice president and general manager of Intel's Enterprise
Platforms Group, although he admitted that it was unlikely the
software could improve performance beyond that.
Even with the new software, Itanium processors still lag behind
their Xeon cousins when it comes to 32-bit performance. The fastest
Itanium processors available can run 32-bit applications at the
rate of a 1.5GHz Xeon processor, Intel said. The fastest Xeon now
available operates at 3.2GHz.
While Intel's rival, Advanced Micro Devices has made much of the
32-bit performance of its 64-bit Opteron processors, Fister said
that breadth of the Itanium product line, and not 32-bit
performance, would be the key to Itanium's success.
He conceded. however, the importance of 32-bit performance
applications was increasing, and he predicted that as Itanium
servers become available in lower-power configurations and at less
expensive prices, more of the computer market will begin to cross
over to Itanium.
"With Montecito, we'll have more breadth of the product line,"
said Fister, referring to Intel's dual-core Itanium processor,
expected sometime next year. "By the time we get to the middle of
the decade, we'll have even more."
Intel will reveal details about some of these new configurations
at its Intel Developer Forum conference next month.
Montecito and the next generation of Xeon processors will
include new power control technology that allows parts of the
processor to turn themselves off when they are not being used.
Intel is also working on new data centre power control software
that will improve the power consumption of Intel and Itanium blade
servers.
"It looks across a rack of blades, and it does the same thing as
power control on the CPU," said Fister.
Robert McMillan writes for IDG News Service