Reading between the lines of yesterday's 'announcement', one item struck me as very significant. 
CSY basically admitted that they could not justify the effort to convert MPE/iX, IMAGE/SQL, and various
subsystems to run on IA64. This does not bode well for other complex operating systems, DBMS, 
and application packages, attempting the same 'migration'. Excellent technical documentation can 
be found at: http://cpus.hp.com/technical_references/

My conclusion is that I would not be in a big haste to convert to a comparable 32-bit platform, DBMS, or application. 
These alternatives probably did not have the same IA64 head start as CSY, and may end up in the same predicament.
They also may not be as forthright about the issues, schedule, and costs as CSY was. 

My recommendation would be to ride out the wave of the 64-bit Tsunami, and see where the chips eventually fall <<pun intended>>. 
Meanwhile your current HP3000 investment will continue to pay reliable dividends. Otherwise you could be faced with an 
expensive initial parallel investment, immediately followed by an equally expensive 64-bit upgrade. 
Another way of putting it would be, that it would be a shame to jump out of the frying pan into the fire.

Cordially,

Mike Hornsby
Co-founder/Chief Technical Officer
Beechglen Development Inc. (beechglen.com)
513-922-0509
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