Re: Apple, Jobs, and the irony of it

["Charlie" <charlied@NOSPAMbboard.com>]

"Supertimer" <supertimer@aol.com> wrote in message
20030821060533.06546.00000277@mb-m28.aol.com">news:20030821060533.06546.00000277@mb-m28.aol.com...
> Eric Smith <eric-no-spam-for-me@brouhaha.com> wrote:
>
> >supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer) writes:
> >> Also, the claim that the G5 is the first PC
> >> 64-bit processor is also wrong.  That title
> >> belongs to AMD's Opteron chip which was
> >> released in April, several months ahead of
> >> the G5.
> >
> >No, the 21066 "Low Cost Alpha" (LCA45) chip was the first 64-bit
> >processor specifically designed for use in PCs, such as the DEC Multia,
> >and was released in 1992 if memory serves, eleven years before the AMD
> >Opteron and IBM G5.  It was based on the 21064 design (the first
> >released Alpha chip) with an added memory controller.  The memory
> >controller had fairly poor performance, though.
>
> My mistake.
>
> I should have stated the first mainstream 64-bit
> processor as in a 64-bit processor that can run
> a mainstream OS natively.  The current
> mainstream operating system platforms are
> mainly MacOS and Windows.  Although it can
> be argued "what is mainstream" I consider
> mainstream to mean walk into Best Buy and
> walk out with software applications of your
> choice.

Intel and Hewlett-Packard introduced the Itanium processor (64 bit registers
and 64 bit data bus) in May of 2001.  The Itanium 2 processor (64 bit registers
and 128 bit + 8 bit ECC data bus) came out in June of 2002.  The Itanium
processors run Window XP (64 bit Edition), Linux (4 distributions) and 2 Unix
versions (HP-UX and AIX).  The Itaniums also have a 32 bit compatibility mode
so that it can run old operating systems.

Charlie