Hello Friends:

Steve Cooper invites us to see why HP thinks 64-bit operating systems are a
good idea. Near the top of a dense web page HP says this about demand for
64-bits:

"Demand for 64-bit computing is in its early stages of market acceptance.
The key market drivers for 64-bit computing are a combination of
specialized applications and some degree of supply-driven (i.e.,
vendor-based) marketing."

And in my opinion, a HIGH degree of that marketing, versus any application
needs.

At this point 10 years ago, the 3000 community was chafing at the bit to
move to 32-bit MPE from 16-bit MPE. Today's situation isn't the same, for
lots of customers. Back then, Spectrum systems (MPE/XL or MPE/iX) were
desperately needed by Series 70 customers who were maxed out with little
hope of more horsepower. To put it another way, MPE V was a far more
worn-out horse in 1987 than MPE/iX is at 32 bits in 1997.

Remember 10 years ago? HP introduced RISC on the HP 9000s first, nearly a
full year ahead of the HP 3000's first 32-bit operating system, MPE/XL 1.0.
And even that head-start wasn't enough. Some who lived through a MPE/XL 1.0
production implmentation had to acquire great resume skills -- or
tremendous patience watching their mailboxes for new versions of the
operating system that would stay up through a full shift. MPE/XL 1.0 was,
as some veterans put it, a career move.

After my infamous tilt at this 64-bit windmill last spring, I'm comfortable
with leaving the HP-UX folks to do the arrow-in-the-backside pioneering
with 64 bits. Too many people I've talked with couldn't weather the trials
of getting a new operating system on its feet. Once the customer demand
overtakes the "supply-driven (i.e., vendor-based)" marketing, we'll need HP
to get to work on delivering a full 64-bit MPE/iX. By then, we may have the
advantage of seeing the operating system improve at somebody else's expense
(i.e., the HP-UX customers).

Anybody anxious to try out a 1.0 version of 64-bit MPE on their
*production* machine? Geez, lots of people aren't yet willing to install
MPE/iX 5.5, an operating system that's in its 10th year of production use.
For the next two years, I'm more comfortable thinking of IA-64 -- and it's
corresponding "Next Generation Unix" -- as experimental.


Ron Seybold, Editor In Chief
The 3000 NewsWire
Independent Information to Maximize Your HP3000
http://www.3000newswire.com/newswire
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