Jim Phillips passes along some notes from the "HP Hot Topic Road Show '99."
(Thanks, Jim! :)

> 2)  There is no mixed mode in IA-64:  PA code cannot call IA-64
> code and vice versa.
>
> 3)  PA-RISC will be the MPE platform until the 2002-2003 time
> frame.  IA-64 will require a new MPE release.  However, similar
> to the MPE/V to MPE/iX transition, no recompile of code will be
> needed, and "classic" HP3000 code will run on IA-64.

Huh?  If PA code cannot call IA-64 code then how will non-recompiled
code call the system intrinsics (which, presumably, at some point call
"native" routines) ?  Or is that "presumably" part a mistake?

> 5)  IA-64 supports (requires?) dynamic optimization of code; that
> is, there is a separate code space for each user and that user's
> code is optimized for the way they do things.

Well THAT's interesting!

I mean, hasn't it "always" been the case that the OS never had to
swap code *out to disk* because it "knew" that the code could not
change?  With IA-64, however, it looks like a system that is under
some degree of memory pressure will be taxed even more by having
to write user code to disk!

Or am I reading this all wrong?

> 6)  The central USA HP sales manager (name forgotten!) made a
> short presentation where he announced that there will be some
> kind of e-services announcement next week.

That's likely the "Fremont" project reported yesterday (Wed, 5/12)
on c|net's NEWS.COM:

        Fremont is an "enabling" technology that lets different servers
        exchange information for Internet-based services, according to
        sources familiar with the project.
        ...
        HP is taking pains to make Fremont as widespread as possible,
        basing it on Sun Microsystems' "write once, run anywhere" technology
        and making it an open-source project, sources said.

The full article is at:
        < http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,36482,00.html >

> I spoke with the above-mentioned HP sales manager after his talk
> and asked him point-blank if this meant that we would be seeing
> HP sales people again, even if we weren't a State Farm or Boeing
> or Southwest Air and he replied in the affirmative.  We'll see.

But...but...but...that would mean Stan would have to update
the related item in the FAQ! ;)

You did you the word "seeing," right?

--Glenn

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