Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Sat, 22 Feb 2003 03:28:08 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Sat, 22 Feb 2003 03:28:07 -0500 Received: from havoc.daloft.com ([64.213.145.173]:9657 "EHLO havoc.gtf.org") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Sat, 22 Feb 2003 03:28:07 -0500 Date: Sat, 22 Feb 2003 03:38:10 -0500 From: Jeff Garzik To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Minutes from Feb 21 LSE Call Message-ID: <20030222083810.GA4170@gtf.org> References: <96700000.1045871294@w-hlinder> <20030222001618.GA19700@work.bitmover.com> <306820000.1045874653@flay> <20030222024721.GA1489@work.bitmover.com> <14450000.1045888349@[10.10.2.4]> <20030222050514.GA3148@work.bitmover.com> <19870000.1045895965@[10.10.2.4]> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <19870000.1045895965@[10.10.2.4]> User-Agent: Mutt/1.3.28i Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 2185 Lines: 44 ia32 big iron. sigh. I think that's so unfortunately in a number of ways, but the main reason, of course, is that highmem is evil :) Intel can use PAE to "turn back the clock" on ia32. Although googling doesn't support this speculation, I am willing to bet Intel will eventually unveil a new PAE that busts the 64GB barrier -- instead of trying harder to push consumers to 64-bit processors. Processor speed, FSB speed, PCI bus bandwidth, all these are issues -- but ones that pale in comparison to the long term effects of highmem on the market. Enterprise customers will see this as a signal to continue building around ia32 for the next few years, thoroughly damaging 64-bit technology sales and development. I bet even IA64 suffers... at Intel's own hands. Rumors of a "Pentium64" at Intel are constantly floating around The Register and various rumor web sites, but Intel is gonna miss that huge profit opportunity too by trying to hack the ia32 ISA to scale up to big iron -- where it doesn't belong. Being cynical, one might guess that Intel will treat IA64 as a loss leader until the other 64-bit competition dies, keeping ia32 at the top end of the market via silly PAE/PSE hacks. When the existing 64-bit compettion disappears, five years down the road, compilers will have matured sufficiently to make using IA64 boxes feasible. If you really want to scale, just go to 64-bits, darn it. Don't keep hacking ia32 ISA -- leave it alone, it's fine as it is, and will live a nice long life as the future's preferred embedded platform. 64-bit. alpha is old tech, and dead. *sniff* sparc64 is mostly old tech, and mostly dead. IA64 isn't, yet. x86-64 is _nice_ tech, but who knows if AMD will survive competition with Intel. PPC64 is the wild card in all this. I hope it succeeds. Jeff, feeling like a silly, random rant after a long drive ...and from a technical perspective, highmem grots up the code, too :) - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/