Torvalds and Kernel 2.6 and AMD's x86-64
Poster: Aron Schatz
Posted on October 26, 2002 at 4:01:48 PM
There is many bits of information in this article. The Linux 2.6 Kernel will be out by June of next year. Also, Torvalds says that he prefers AMD's x86-64 over the pure 64bit Itanium.
Quote
Torvalds also griped about Intel's decision to push its high-end Itanium "IA-64" processors over its current Pentium and Xeon "IA-32" lines. The Itanium processor, codeveloped by Hewlett-Packard, is a 64-bit chip built to accommodate vast amounts of memory, but the commands it understands are drastically different from those understood by the 32-bit Pentium line. Torvalds said he preferred AMD's approach to 64-bit computers, keeping the same commands, or "instruction set," but adding 64-bit abilities.
"I really dislike IA-64. I think it's a losing strategy," Torvalds said. "My personal hope is that IA-64 withers and dies because there's no point. It performs badly; it's expensive; it's an all-new instruction set."