I am not well-versed in the IA-64 architecture, but I know it is not the
same instruction set/architecture as PA-RISC.  For one thing, it is said to
be based on EPIC architecture rather than RISC.  Also, to get Intel to play,
and to promote the chip as the guts of other manufacturers' machines, I
suspect it is more like its Intel predecessors than PA-RISC.  I believe
there will be an emulation mode, somewhat akin to Compatibility Mode on
PA-RISC, that should simplify porting, but to get things to run in native
mode will require a pretty big rewrite.  I base many of my comments on the
fact that HP has referred to the IA-64 port as a large effort.  They have
been working on the migration of HPUX and the redesign of compilers since
the inception of the IA-64 project.

I suspect HP's earlier announcement that they wouldn't consider the MPE port
to IA-64 until the second half of 2002 was based on the fact that they knew
the discontinuance of MPE would be announced by then, and they wouldn't have
to answer that question any more.

Hopefully others on the list have more specific information about the
processors and how they compare.

-----Original Message-----
From: Frank Gribbin [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2001 11:48 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: IBM as an option


On Thu, 29 Nov 2001 09:26:48 -0800, John Clogg <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Much of the speculation about possible futures for MPE seems to ignore the
>fact that MPE is undoubtedly very hardware-specific in its design.  To port
>it to a platform with a different architecture would be a huge effort.
This
>is acknowledged in HP's decision to not port MPE to IA-64, which in turn is
>probably a major factor in HP's decision to drop MPE.

Since HP co-developed IA-64 and the designs were finalized some time ago
when MPE was still a porting candidate, doesn't that suggest that any/most
MPE hardware dependencies were considered in the design ?

Frank Gribbin
Potter Anderson & Corroon LLP

* To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, *
* etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *

* To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, *
* etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *