Posts by sdsantini

x86 compatibility is ultimately important

It's all about the applications, and if someone can readily port to the Larrabee-like CPU and take advantage of the CPU power, then that solution will win.

Supposing the cost of conversion is reduced to trivial - as is today - your old code can run compatibly on new CPU, or recompile and use advanced features - it's be game over.

There will always be specialty processors for specific tasks, but if the existing eco-system can be carried to that caliber cpu, then the future will be interesting.

what else will Oracle do with the Sparc line?

No matter what, Oracle should cut their losses on the line - it's not in their core competency.

The only thing if/that makes any sense is that Fujitsu takes the legacy Sun engineers from Oracle and continue developing the product line. They are already manufacturing the equipment, so they have an investment to make a decision about.

The win/win is that Oracle lets Fujitsu continue developing and manufacturing the existing line as they see fit until demand drops off, with Oracle collecting a margin. Further, Fujitsu should develop for Oracle a line of appliances customized to their applications so they can keep up with other new merged companies, ie, SAP/Sybase...

This would allow Oracle to sell the vertical solutions that are competitive, yet not have the hardware risk, and Fujitsu gets the product line, plus a captive product set to expand into.