back to article Intel accidentally outs 'Poulson' Itanium specs

The webmeisters of the world have given once again, with Intel accidentally outing some of the feeds and speeds of the impending "Poulson" Itanium processors for midrange and high-end servers. Some of the data has already been taken down, and all of it will probably follow shortly. An intrepid reader of El Reg pointed out to …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What were the new parts?

    I hate to whine, but what in this article was really new information (from the reference manual)? It looks almost like the article was cut in short, and the part that was supposed to come after the refresher is missing.

    1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
      Happy

      Re: What were the new parts?

      Not to be too cynical, but I suspect this "accidental" leak happening in the week IBM start making noises about their "it's-not-Power8-it's-Power7+" chip is not entirely coincidental.

  2. Vic

    Errrr - hang about...

    The Itanium is dead, right? Larry told me so.

    Vic.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Errrr - hang about...

      It is dead, as a long-term platform - if memory serves me correct, we knew about Poulson on the roadmap, so from the Oracle story there's nothing new here, but it was beyond that (or maybe the next iteration again) which Intel aren't willing to publicly confirm.

      If you weren't aware, processor manufacturers generally have roadmaps stretching out several generations, a) because it simply takes that long to develop, and b) particularly for corporate system builders, to give confidence in a platform's long-term viability.

      1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
        FAIL

        Re: Re: Errrr - hang about...

        "....but it was beyond that ...." Nope, Kittson is on the roadmap.

        "......If you weren't aware, processor manufacturers generally have roadmaps stretching out several generations...." Really? So that must mean IBM's Power is toast seeing as their public roadmap stops at P7+, P8 is just a placeholder with no details, and there is no P9! Hope no-one tells Larry!

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Errrr - hang about...

          POWER9 is in the roadmap published by The Register here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/16/ibm_power7_plus_preview/page2.html

          Can't really blame you for not knowing that though, since it was just two days ago that it came out.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Errrr - hang about...

          Roadmaps are marketing material. The more doubt there is around a product, the more roadmap information will be released to reassure people. When people know a product is stable and will be released, there is no need to push elaborate roadmaps to analyst groups to reassure people. It is also IBM's style. As with PureSystems, they don't talk about things until they have something substantive to talk about.

        3. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Errrr - hang about...

          Oh praise the lord, yay, Matt Bryant is here!!!!!

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Errrr - hang about...

        Well to be fair, we didn't get confirmation from IBM about anything beyond POWER8 until TPM's POWER7+ article just a few days ago, and even then I believe it was a leaked internal roadmap without any public announcement in tow. However, there are of course other reasons (most of all the internal documents from HP, which were released by Oracle) to have serious doubts about the future of Itanium, and more trust in the long-term commitment of IBM to the RISC/UNIX market.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Trollface

      Re: Errrr - hang about...

      In death we have a name. His name was Robert Poulson

      1. CADmonkey
        Pirate

        @ Larry Crapbeans

        His Name Was Robert Poulson

        1. Openminded Cynic

          His name was Robert Poulson.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            And don't talk about /b/^H^H^HFight Club.

  3. Dazed and Confused

    how longs your road?

    I don't think that Intel have published any road maps for Xeon CPUs that extend any further than the Itanium's one. Intel have said that after Poulson there will be Kittson. Their Xeon roadmap doesn't go any further than this.

    The difference is that everybody expects there to be new Xeons, so not publishing a longer roadmap isn't seen as a problem, like there is no road map telling the sun will come up tomorrow morning. You just assume it will and are happy to live your life on this basis.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: how longs your road?

      They have published roadmaps for the x86 line extending all the way through 2016, with Skymont as a die shrink of the Skylake microarchitecture (though they have not explicitly stated that they will go into Xeon processors, but following the current release schedule that means we will have Skymont-EP in 2017 and Skymont-EX in 2018). You have a point all the same however, and that is also the reason why IBM does not have to go into great detail about upcoming POWER processors whereas Oracle has to provide a clear and long roadmap for SPARC.

      Here's a link to the latest x86 server roadmap by the way (although its authenticity is unclear): http://www.sweclockers.com/image/red/2011/07/27/1.png?t=paneBanner&k=0c324984

      1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
        Pirate

        Re: Re: how longs your road?

        "....that is also the reason why IBM does not have to go into great detail about upcoming POWER processors...." IBM like to hide the roadmap because it has slipped and stalled so often on Power CPUs, no other reason. The Power6+, where did that go? Oh, it just sneaked out as a speedbump to Power6. Power7 was also late as it needed a complete redesign form the in-order Power6. Power8? Well, my guess is that is exactly what the new Power7+ is, just the unimpressive Power8 being released "early", just like Power6+.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: how longs your road?

          IBM POWER's roadmap performance has been objectively better than either Sparc or Itanium. Every three years they have released a substantially improved CPU, usually with a speed bump kicker at the end of the second year.

  4. The Alpha Klutz

    well i could have designed that...

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Imagine the voice of David Attenborough

    "And onward waddles the dodo, on its quest to the edge of the volcano, into the oblivion of which it will inevitably go."

    (On a more serious note, I have no idea what will replace Itanic when it finally sinks, especially considering the good technologies that died so that it could hatch. I hope to $DEITY that someone has a plan, as long as it isn't Intel.)

    1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
      Facepalm

      Re: Imagine the voice of David Attenborough

      Are you talking about IBM mainframe there?

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